The buried cities of Campania : or, Pompeii and Herculaneum, their history, their destruction, and their remains

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THE GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE LIBRARY

Halsted VanderPoel Campanian Collection

603 ADAMS (W. H. Davenport) The Buried Cil
laneum, Their History, Their Destruction, and Their tooled in
8vp, with 10 plates, 48 other illustrations in tl edges gilt, other
original green decorated cloth, gilt, one insif

Abbey, Scenery,

,0°

THE

BURIED CITIES OF CAMPANIA;

OR,

cir nnb fjerruhnmtm,

THEIR HISTORY, THEIR DESTRUCTION. AND THEIR REMAINS.

Bv
W. H. DAVENPORT ADAMS,

a/" Ltcords o/A'Mt Lives," " Memorable Rattles in English History "
" Venice Past and Present" &e.

" And in an hour of universal mirth,
What time the trump proclaims the festival,
Buries some capital city, there to sleep
The sleep of ages— till a plough, a spade
Disclose the secret, and the eye of day
Glares coldiy on the streets, the skeletons;
Each in his place, each in his gay attire,
And eager to enjoy."

ROGERS.

LONDON:

T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW
EDINBURGH ; AND NEW YORK.

1872.

THE GETTY RESEARCH
INSTITUTE LIBRAW >

rcf ate.

j]HAKSPEARE makes Malcolm say of the Thane
of Cawdor, that " nothing in his life became
him like the leaving it." Of Pompeii it may
be said, that nothing in its history is equal in interest to its
last scene. The fate of the gay Campanian city has been
curious. Some cities have secured enduring fame by their
commercial opulence, like Tyre; by their art-wonders,
like Athens ; by their world-wide power, like Rome ; or
their gigantic ruins, like Thebes. Of others, scarcely less
famous for their wealth and empire, the site is almost
forgotten ; their very names have almost passed away
from the memory of men. But this third-rate provincial
town — the " Brighton" or " Scarborough" of the Roman
patricians, though less splendid and far less populous
than the English watering-places — owes its celebrity to
its very destruction. Had it not been overwhelmed by
the ashes of Vesuvius, the student, the virtuoso, and the
antiquary, would never have been drawn to it as to a

vi rREFACE.

shrine worthy of a pilgrim's homage. As a graceful
writer has justly remarked, the terrible mountain, whilst it
destroyed, has also saved Pompeii ; and in so doing, has
saved for us an ever-vivid illustration of ancient Roman
life. Hence the imperishable interest which attaches to
it; hence its charm for every cultivated mind. The
year-long labours of the most assiduous German com-
mentators could never have thrown such an amount of
light upon the manners and customs of the Romans, upon
the works of the great Latin writers, as has been accom-
plished by the spade and pickaxe of the excavators of
Pompeii. They show us the theatre, the forum, and the
temple — the baker's shop, and the gladiator's training-
school — the lady's boudoir, and the wealthy patrician's
tablinum, — just as they were when the life and motion
of the bright city were suddenly arrested, and its annals
abruptly closed. What would we not give for a similar
illustration of Egyptian or Assyrian manners ! How the
historian would rejoice if Persepolis, or Palmyra, or
Babylon, could in like manner be restored to the light
of day !

It is not the object of the present volume to furnish a
hand-book to the ruined city. In the works ot Cell, Ma-

X

zois, Fiorelli, Overbeck, Dr. Dyer, and Nicolini, scarcely a
detail has been overlooked ; the subject is treated with
the most exhaustive minuteness and painstaking research.

PREFACE. vii

The writer's intention in the following pages is simply to
furnish a general description of its more remarkable
objects, that the reader may form a just conception of
their value as illustrative of the customs, arts, and do-
mestic economy of the ancients. Then, if so disposed,
he may pursue his studies with the assistance of the
writers above mentioned. The excellent work on Pom-
peii in the " Library of Entertaining Knowledge" is now,
to a certain extent, obsolete, and no other compendious
summary, in a handy and convenient form, is accessible
to the general reader. The writer, therefore, believes
that there was a want to be supplied ; and he trusts he
has succeeded in supplying it, by bringing within a
moderate compass the results of the discoveries made at
Pompeii and Herculaneum up to the present time. And
as his volume is designed for the young, he has intro-
duced concise explanations of various points connected
with Roman antiquities, when they seemed needful to a
clear comprehension of the subject. Thus : in connec-
tion with the baths of Pompeii he has briefly described
the general arrangements of the Roman Thermae, and in
connection with its theatres the mode of construction
adopted by the ancient architects. The critic will be
pleased to remember, however, that these descriptions
have been purposely rendered as plain and unadorned as
was consistent with accuracy.

yiii PREFACE.

Lastly, the writer has to acknowledge his obligations
to the authorities already quoted, and especially to Over-
beck's " Pompeji." Some admirable photographs of note-
worthy buildings and objects, accompanied by agreeable
descriptions, will be found in Dr. Dyer's " Ruins of Pom-
peii;" Sir W. Cell's " Pompeiana" is still a standard work;
and the coloured lithographic plates in Nicolini's " Le
case ed i Monumenti di Pompeii" are remarkable for their
accuracy and spirit.

W. II. D. A.

C o it 1 1 n i s ,

Page

I. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CITIES, .. .. .. .. n

II. GENERAL VIEW OF THE CITY, .. .. .. .. 47

IIL THE FORUM, .. .. .. .. .. .. 62

The Temple of Venus, .. .. .. .. .. 69

The Basilica, .. .. .. .. .. .. 74

The Curiae, and ^Erarium, . . . . . . . . . . 77

The Chalcidicum, .. .. .. .. .. .. 77

Temple of Quirinus, .. .. ... .. .. 81

The Senaculum, . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

The Pantheon, .. .. .. .'. .. .. 84

IV. THE TEMPLE OF FORTUNE, . . . . . . . . . . 97

V. THE AMPHITHEATRES, .. .. .. .. .. 103

VI. THE THEATRES, .. .. .. .. .. .. 127

The Great Theatre, .. .. .. .. .. 137

The Small Theatre, or Odeum, .. .. .. .. 140

The Soldiers' Barracks, .. .. .. .. .. 143

Temple of ^Esculapius, .. .. .. .. .. 145

House of the Sculptor, .. .. .. .. .. 145

The Iseon, .. .. .. .. .. .. 146

The Tribunal, . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

VII. THE THERMAE, OR BATHS, .. .. .. .. .. 152

Women's Baths, .. .. .. .. .. .. 170

The New Baths, .. .. .. .. .. .. 171

x CONTENTS.

»••,•:

V11I. HOUSES OF POMPEII, .. .. .. .. .. 17^

The House of the Tragic Poet, . . . . . . . . 190

House of Ceres, .. .. .. .. .. .. 703

Houses of the Fountains, .. .. .. .. .. 204

The Fullonica, .. .. .. .. .. .. 206

The House of Holconius, . . . . . . . . . . 309

House of Pansa, .. .. .. .. .. .. 212

House of Sallust, .. .. .. .. .. .. 217

House of the Dioscuri, .. .. .. .. .. aig

House of the Centaur, . . . . . . . . . . 22 3

IX. THE TOMUS AT POMPEII, .. .. .. .. .. 237

X. HERCULANEUM, .. .. .. .. .. 252

XI. RECENT DISCOVERIES, .. .. .. .. .. 256

XII. THE MUSEUM AT NAPLES. .. .. .. .. .. *6g

asr-r.

THE

BURIED CITIES OF CAMPANIA.

I.

j)e JJcstnutioii nf ijw Cities.

" The long, long night

That followed, when the shower of ashes fell,
When they that sought Pompeii sought in vain :

It was not to be found."

ROGERS.

HE shores of the Bay of Naples exhibit a
loveliness and a fertility which have in all
ages won the admiration of every lover of
the beautiful. On this most favoured region
Nature seems to have lavished, with unstinting hand,
her choicest gifts. The olive, the mulberry, and the
vine adorn its verdant slopes ; the bloom of flowers lies
on its plains ; cool shadows nestle in its leafy woods ; its
sea shines ever with a tranquil azure ; sweet odours are
wafted by the breeze from its groves of citron and cedar ;
and over all the enchanted scene the cloudless heaven
extends its arch of serenest blue. Nor are there want-

\3. " FAIR PARTffENOPE."

ing those associations of song and fable which add to
the charm of even the fairest landscape. Here Virgil
invoked the happy Muses, among fields which seemed
consecrated to their worship. On yonder promontory
of Misenum lies buried the trumpeter of Hector and
^neas, whose name, as the poet foretold, has become
immortal :

" /Etemumque tenet per sxcula nomen."

In the blossomy isle of JEola. dwelt the Circean sor-
ceress—

" The daughter of the Sun, whose charmed cup
Whoever tasted lost his upright shape." — MILTON.

At Sorento, which looks out upon the Parthenopean bay
from its castled heights, was born Torquato Tasso :

" Once among

The children gathering shells along the shore,
One laughed and played, unconscious of his fate :
His to drink deep of sorrow, and through life
To be the scorn of them that knew him not —
Trampling alike the giver and his gift." — ROGERS.

Gorgeous Roman villas glittered of yore amid the
purple vineyards, and the shades of Caesar and Pompey
and Cicero appear ever present to the wanderer's eye.
Once again we seem to hear the choral music swelling
on the wind, as the gilded galleys of the imperial court
glide across the gleaming bay. Yonder convent of
Pozzano recalls the memory of its founder, Gonsalvo de
Cordova, the great captain. Amalfi, at the mouth of its
deep mountain -gorge, revives the history of a maritime
republic, which in the eleventh century was the first
naval power in Europe. The radiant columns of
Paestum belong to an age which peopled earth with fair

A LAND OF SONG. 13

creations of god and goddess, nymph and faun. The
classic shores are bathed by the Tyrrhene waters ; and
blue against the eastern horizon lies the syren's isle of
Leucosia. At Puteoli stood Cicero's favourite villa,
where the Emperor Hadrian is said to have been
interred. Westward of Monte Nuovo, and deep hidden
among vine-clad hills, sleeps the celebrated Lake of
Avernus —

" Where the dark rock o'erhangs the infernal lake,
And mingling streams eternal murmurs wake." — HOMER.

Here, through the cavern of the Sibyl, ^neas descended
into the realm of shadows. Cumae, planted on its vol-
canic steep, is hallowed by the song of Pindar, who cele-
brated the great victory of its citizens over the Etruscan
armada. At Liternum, cursing an ungrateful country, died
the Roman general, Scipio Africanus. And, predomi-
nant above all the sweet interchange of cliff, and glen,
and plain, — its presence everywhere felt, if not directly
seen — a power and a mystery in the landscape which we
instinctively recognize, — looms the volcanic mass of
mighty Vesuvius, nursing in its heart of hearts the
imperishable fire. Viewed from a distance, its flanks
covered with wood and grove and bower, crowned with
a weird and indescribable beauty —

" An ampler ether, a diviner air,
And fields invested with purpureal gleams' —

it seems as if the stories told of its terrible powers of
destruction were all the veriest fables. And yet, smiling
as is now the bright Campanian plain, and luminous as
are now the soft Parthenopean shores, let but Vesuvius

14 POMPEII AND ITS SCENERY.

awake in its fury, and all will be changed in a moment
to the blackness of desolation.

" Here verdant vines o'erspread Vesuvius' sides :
The generous grape here poured her purple tides.
This Bacchus loved beyond his native scene ;
Here dancing satyrs joyed to trip the green.
Far more than Sparta this in Venus' grace ;
And great Alcidcs once renowned the place.
Now flaming embers spread dire waste around,
And gods regret that gods can thus confound." — MARTIAL.*

On a slight ascent at the base of this famous moun-
tain stood, upwards of two thousand years ago, a fair
and flourishing city, which its inhabitants knew as Pom-
peii. Its streets sloped towards the right bank of the
river Sarno (Sarnus) on the east ; on the west and south
they inclined towards the very marge of the crater, as,
from its cuplike shape, the ancients called the Bay of
Naples. Keeping along the sunny strand, the Pompeian
might reach, in a couple of hours, the breezy headland,
crowned by the temples, theatres, and glittering houses
of the sister city of Herculaneum — so named from a tradi-
tion that it was founded by the legendary hero Hercules.
Both these cities, and the wide stretch of shore between
them, were the favourite residence, in ancient days, of
the wealthy Romans, who planted their luxurious villas at
every vantage-point. You may suppose, therefore, that
art bestowed its rarest embellishments on the surround-
ing landscapes, and that nothing was left undone which
could gratify the taste or seothe the fancy. Yet these
prosperous and opulent cities no longer seethe with busy

* Martial, Epigramm. iv. 44. (" Hie est pampineo virideo mode V'esviut
lunbris.")

A SUDDEN CHANCE. 15

life. Vesuvius still casts its awful shadow over . the
scene ; the air is as sweet and balmy as in times of old ;
still ripple the " blue Parthenopean waves " on the
enchanted strand, — but Pompeii and Herculaneum have
ceased to be. From far off lands, which their inhabit-
ants had scarcely heard of, come the antiquary and the
scholar, the poet and the artist, to muse amid their
ruins. Were they then destroyed by the storm of war,
or were their streets swept clean of life by a sudden
pestilence ? Did their peoples migrate in a body
to some wealthier region 1 Not so. The morning
came, and all was bright and joyous. The shops were
filled with their usual wares, and crowded by in-
tending purchasers ; Campanian peasants stood in the
streets with baskets of fruit and flowers ; the slaves
drew water at the fountains ; the gambler rattled his
dice ; the drunkard quaffed his wine ; in the public
places gathered the chariots of the wealthy ; the priest
sacrificed at the altar ; the merchant trafficked in the
forum ; and in the crowded theatre men and women had
gathered " with wolfish eyes " to watch the struggles
of the athlete and the gladiator in the bloody arena ;
when, suddenly, a great cloud rose above the crest of
Vesuvius in the shape of a pine-tree ! The earth shook ;
the waves rolled to and fro in hasty tumult; darkness
swept over the earth ; flashes of fire broke through the
shrouded sky ; showers of stones, and ashes, and fine
dust descended heavily and persistently on the plain;
rivers of burning, hissing lava, and of steaming mud and
water, rolled down the mountain-sides, and poured over
the doomed cities in a deluge of destruction ! In a few

(190) 2

*

1 6 HISTORICAL DETAIl..".

hours the scene was changed, as if some evil spirit had
there wrought out its most fatal spells. Commerce anil
trade, art and science, pleasure and license, honest in-
dustry and voluptuous sloth, all were suddenly dissolved !
The gambler perished at his dice, the drunkard over his
wine-cup. Terrified fugitives, amazed by the darkness,
confused by the horror, were cut off in their retreat,
and stricken dead. Alas for Pompeii! — it had ceased
to be ! Alas for Herculaneum ! — men knew its place
no more ! Buried beneath the lava and the accumu-
lated volcanic debris, lie temple and circus, the tribunal,
the shrine, the frescoed wall, the bright mosaic floor;
but there is neither life nor motion in either City
of the Dead, though the sea that once bore their
argosies still shimmers in the sunshine, and the moun-
tain that accomplished their destruction still breathes
forth smoke and fire !

»The story of Pompeii and Herculaneum has been
often told ; and yet I seek to tell it once again. What
I have to say will, however, be said concisely, and in
such wise that he who runs may read ; while I hope to
embody in my narrative the latest results of the research
of many trustworthy authorities.

At a very remote period the fertile beauty of the Bay of
Naples had induced the adventurous Greeks to settle on
its shores. Their seamen had carried home to the states
of Hellas the praise of its rich landscapes, its orange
groves and violet valleys ; nor had they forgotten its
manifold capabilities for a maritime and commercial
population. It was long before the foundation of Rome

•
OS CAN AND GREEK. 17

that the Greeks, instigated by these reports, planted
their colony of Cumse upon its trachytic hill* and along
its sea-girt cliffs.

Tai 6' virtp Kt'Ataj aXicpKtes o\dai. — PINDAR.

From thence arose many other settlements, either on
the Gulf of Puteoli or among the Eubagaiv hills, on the
shores of Gaeta or on the site of the modern Naples.
Soon the entire margin of the bay, from Sorrentum to
Misenum, was studded by flourishing Greek cities,
enjoying a virtual independence, and covering the seas
with their armadas. The original Oscan inhabitants ot
the country were reduced into subjection, and the towns
which they had founded were either occupied by the
Greeks or acknowledged them as masters. In course of
time, it is true, the Oscan language prevailed over that
of the invaders, whose inferior numbers were gradually
absorbed in the preponderant Oscan population ; but
what may be called a leaven of Greek feeling and
thought, and Greek perception of the beautiful, existed
down to the last hour of the doomed cities.

Pompeii, Oscan in origin, thus became Greek by
conquest, and once more Oscan by the force of numbers.
It loved, however, to claim for itself a Greek founder,
and, without the slightest justification from facts, or even
tradition, asserted that it was built by Hercules. The
etymology of its name is uncertain, though some authori-
ties consider it to be derived from Hopirlia., " store-
houses." Its earlier history is as doubtful as its

* Strabo asserts that Cumse was the most ancient of all the Greek cities in
Italy and Sicily.

1 8 A ROMAN MUNICIPWM.

etymology, rind we can only safely assert that it was
successively occupied by the Etruscans and the Sam-
nites. The Campanians were conquered by Rome in
B.C, 340, but Pompeii preserved its independence for
some few years longer. In B.C 310 it was attacked by
the Roman fleet under Publius Cornelius ; but the Pom-
peians repulsed their formidable enemy. Another period
of obscurity follows, and we hear no more of the city
until the outbreak of the Social or MarsicWarin B.C. 91.
It had undoubtedly become an ally or tributary of Rome.
But it now joined the other Campanian towns in their
rebellion, was besieged by Sulla, and only saved from
total destruction by the strategy of Cluentius. The
Italian general, however, was defeated with great loss at
Nola* (B.C. 89). Sulla was prevented from following up
his victory by the Marian intrigues in the capital ; and
to this circumstance may be due the lenient terms which
Pompeii secured. At all events, while the other Cam-
panian cities were severely punished, their inhabitants
expelled, and Roman colonies settled in their places,
Pompeii escaped with the demolition of its fortifications,
was admitted to the rank of a " municipium," and suffered
to retain its own laws. Sulla, however, placed a military
colony (Colonia Veneria Cornelia) in the suburbs to
overawe the citizens ; and frequent collisions ensued
between them, necessitating appeals to the Roman
senate.

Its delightful situation, uts genial climate, and its
numerous sources of recreation, soon attracted to it the
wealthier Romans. Cicero built himself a villa in its

* Appian, in Bella Civiii, i. 50

THE COURSE OF EVENTS. 19

neighbourhood, where he wrote his treatise " De Officiis,"
and where he held high converse with Hirtius, Balbus,
and Pansa. During the Servile War it was the head-
quarters of Cossinius, one of the legates in the army of
the praetor P. Varinius, and Spartactis nearly surprised
and captured him while he was bathing in the " Parthe-
nopean waters" (B.C. 73). Augustus planted here a
second colony of Roman veterans, in the same suburb
as the colony of Sylla, thenceforth named Pagus Augus-
tus Felix. Within its walls Claudius found an asylum
from the tyrannical vagaries of his uncle Tiberius ; and
his son Drusus died here in his childhood, choked by a
pear which in play he had been throwing up and catch-
ing in his mouth (A.D. 20).* The odious oppressions of
Sejanus, the infamous favourite of an infamous master,
drove to Pompeii for refuge the fabulist Phaedrus ; and
it would appear, from some statements of his own, that
in the gay Campanian city Seneca passed much of his
studious youth. One of the latest events in its annals
was the quarrel between its inhabitants and those of
Nuceria (now Nocera), originating in some local sar-
casms at a gladiatorial combat which had taken place in
the Pompeian amphitheatre. Words led to blows, a
battle was fought, and the Nucerians lost the victory.
Baffled in the field, they resorted to the council, and
laid their complaint before the Emperor Nero, who
decided that the Pompeians were in the wrong, and
prohibited them from all theatrical entertainments for
ten years. Such a sentence remarkably illustrates the
importance which the Romans attached to these amuse-

* Suetonius, Claudius. 27.

20

A POMPEIAN QUARREL

nients, and shows how largely they entered into and
made a portion of their daily life. I do not think that
the inhabitants of Harrogate or Brighton, for instance,
would consider it a severe punishment if their theatres
were closed for half-a-dozen decades.

In the Street of Mercury, and near the city wall, there
remains to this day, affixed to the side of a house, a cari-
cature or rude drawing scratched on the plaster with a
sharp-pointed instrument by some lively Pompeian patriot,
in commemoration of this provincial squabble.* An

armed figure — apparently a
gladiator— is seen descend-
ing the steps of the amphi-
theatre, with a shield in his
left hand, and in his right
the victor's emblem, a palm-
branch. Two rude figures
on the left seem intended

for a Pompeian conqueror dragging up a ladder his
bound and humiliated prisoner. Underneath is written
an explanatory legend, —

" Campani victoria una cum Nucerinis peristis."
Campanians, you perished in victory together with the Nucerians.

This occurred in A.D. 59. Four years later the history
of Pompeii was abruptly terminated by an appalling
catastrophe — a catastrophe, nevertheless, to which it
owes its present fame, and which has communicated to
its ruins an importance second only to those of mighty
Rome herself. For, while in the Eternal City we find

• Pompeii : " Library of Entertaining Knowledge," L 36, 37.

A 1'OMPEIAN CARICATURE.

A LIVING CITY, 21

our admiration excited by arch, and frieze, and column ;
by the rent palace and shattered temple — in Pompeii it
is our interest that is stimulated by the exhibition of the
inner life and daily habits of their builders. It is this,
as Dr. Dyer observes, that makes a visit to Pompeii
so attractive, that bestows upon it its sole historic value.
Rome possesses monuments of surpassing splendour,
which leave on the mind of the spectator an indelible
impression. Their remains are unequalled; they can
never fail to stir the poet's fancy. But they tell us
nothing of the home-life of the Romans, of their domestic
arrangements and social customs. At Pompeii, on the
contrary, their houses are unroofed for our inspection;
we may trace their accustomed haunts; we may enter
their innermost chambers; we may see the cook at his
oven, the wine-vendor in his shop, the noble lady in her
boudoir; we may read their electioneering pasquinades,
and admire their pictures : it is, in some sort, a realization
of the old fable of the Sleeping Beauty, — all vitality, and
motion, and energy, after having been suddenly arrested
and held in suspense for two thousand years, seem again,
at our bidding, to have resumed their wonted course, —

" And all the long-pent stream of life
Dashed downward in a cataract." — TENNYSON.

It has been called a City of the Dead ; but the scholar,
the artist, the man of vivid imagination and quick con-
ceptions, will easily re-people its silent streets, and re-
animate its torpid energies, until, for them, it becomes
henceforth a city of the living.

The same great and awful catastrophe which destroyed

22 HERCULANEUM.

Pompeii involved the cities of Herculaneum and Stabict
in ruin. The three cities were situated at nearly the
same distance from each other: Herculaneum, north-
west, on the site now occupied by Portici and Resina,
about four miles from Naples; Pompeii, in the centre,
on the right bank of the Sarno, six miles from Her-
culaneum; and Stabiae, on the lower slope of Monte
San Angelo, south, between four and five miles from
Pompeii. Herculaneum and Pompeii formed with Vesu-
vius a triangle, of which the volcano was the apex ; the
shorter leg between Vesuvius and Herculaneum, the
longer between Vesuvius and Pompeii, while the base
line might be protracted perpendicularly to Stabiae.
Thus:—

Herculaneum.

Monte ban Angelo.

\
S.

Herculaneum, as already stated, was founded, according
to the boastful tradition of its Greek colonists, by Hercules ;
whence Ovid calls it Herculea urbs. It would seem to have
been an Oscan settlement, captured by some Greeks from
Cumae, and afterwards occupied in succession by the Os-
cans, the Tyrrheneans, the Pelasgians, and the Samnites.
According to Livy, it was captured from the latter people
in B.C. 293 by the Roman consul, Spurius Carvilius, sur-
named Maximus. In the Social War it joined the other
Campanian cities in their revolt against Rome, but was

STABILE. 23

besieged and captured by Didius, B.C. 80. Like Pompeii,
it was admitted to the Roman franchise as a municipium,
and enjoyed its own local laws and privileges under its
Demarchs and Archons. Many splendid villas were
erected in its vicinity by the Roman patricians. Servilia,
the mother of Brutus, and the favourite mistress of Julius
Cassar, resided here on an estate presented to her by the
great Dictator. Its position was particularly healthy,
for it crowned a projecting headland between two rivers,
and looked across the Bay of Naples in a south-westerly
direction. Its port was called Retina, a name preserved
in the modern Resina.

Sfabicz, another of the Greek colonies on this delightful
coast, lay on the gently rising ground at the base of
Monte San Angelo, commanding a noble panorama of
the Parthenopean waters. Little of its history is known
to us. It suffered severely in the Social War. Sulla
drove out its wretched inhabitants, and supplied their
places with a colony of his veterans. The Roman nobles
planted their villas all about its environs, in order to
avail themselves of its mineral waters, which were praised
for their sanitary properties by Pliny and Columella. It
was overwhelmed by the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79,
when the elder Pliny lost his life, under circumstances to
be hereafter related. Its site is marked by the modern
port, arsenal, and town of Castellamare.

It now seems desirable to furnish the reader with some
notes on what may be termed the ancient history of
Vesuvius.

24 LEG END A R Y MARVELS.

The whole region of Campania presents abundant in-
dications of volcanic activity; wherefore the ancients
supposed it to have been the scene of the wars between
the giants and the gods, and named it Phlegrcei Campi,
the Phlegnean fields (from Hebrew, Phele Geroh, " mar-
vellous strife"). They invested the entire region with an
atmosphere of mysterious fable. The horrors of Tar-
tarus, the ever-burning Phlegethon, the darkness, and
the caverns, and the noisome vapours of Hades, were
suggested to their lively imagination by its volcanic
features. The rent, scorched, and stricken earth, testi-
fied to the awful force of Jupiter's thunderbolts. Lake
Avernus — "Aornos," the birdless — hidden among the
gloom of forests, and subject of old to such mephitic ex-
halations that no living creature could endure their in-
fluence— became the mouth of hell. Under the island
of Inarime (Ischia) lay fettered the giant Typhon, or
Typhoeus, who, vainly rebelling against his chains, shook
the earth as with an earthquake.*

' And Arime, by Jove's behest,
Firm fixed on Typhon's monster-breast." — (ViRcn., AZneid, be. 716.)

And a temple to the omnipotent god of Olympus was
reared on the very summit of Vesuvius.

Vesuvius has been for eighteen centuries one of the
most active volcanoes in the world. Yet before the
Christian era it must have been quiescent for a very long
period, as none of the ancient writers record an erup-
tion. They describe it as a volcano, " having cavernous
hollows," says Strabo, "in its cindery rocks, which look

* Homer, " Iliad," ii. 782. See also Strabo, book \iii., p. 920.

ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS. 27

as if they had been acted on by fire." In configuration,
the mountain differed greatly from its present outline.
Its summit was then level, with a hollow garlanded by
wild vines, in which Spartacus and his gladiators posted
their camp. The cone, which now forms so conspicuous
a feature of it, did not exist, and the circular ridge called
Somma, which now encloses it, was undoubtedly a por-
tion of the wall of the ancient crater. Vesuvius was
then luxuriantly clothed in vegetation; the vine and the
wild olive enriched its rugged flank. Flourishing cities
stood at its base. There was no sign of the coming evil.

But in A.D. 63, and in the reign of Nero, the long
period of repose was broken, and the latent fires burst
forth with terrific violence. An earthquake overthrew
a considerable portion of Pompeii and Ferculaneum.
Scarcely had their inhabitants in some measure recovered
from their alarm, and begun to rebuild their shattered
edifices, when a still more terrible catastrophe occurred,
and the first recorded eruption of Vesuvius, on the 23rd
of August, A.D. 79, completed the ruin of the two cities.

Of this event we fortunately possess a singularly graphic
description by one who was not only an eye-witness, but
well qualified to observe and record its phenomena — I
mean Pliny the Younger, whose narrative is contained in
two letters addressed to the historian Tacitus.* These
letters run as follows : —

" Your request," he writes, " that I would send you an
account of my uncle's death [the elder Pliny, author of

• C. Plinii Alcib., Epistola, lib. vi. 16 et 20. The " Epistols" have been
translated by Lord Orrery, and Melmoth. I follow, to some extent, the version
of the latter.

a8 fUA'Y'S DESCRIPTION.

the Historia Naturalis], in order to transmit a more
exact relation of it to posterity, merits my acknowledg-
ments; for should the calamity be celebrated by your
pen, its memory, I feel assured, will be rendered imperish-
able He was at that time, with the fleet under

his command, at Misenum. On the 24th of August,
about one in the afternoon, my mother desired him to
observe a cloud which seemed of unusual shape and
dimensions. He had just returned from taking the
benefit of the sun,* and after a cold water bath and a
slight repast, had retired to his study. He immediately
arose, and proceeded to a rising ground, from whence
he might more distinctly mark this very uncommon
appearance.

" At that distance it could not be clearly perceived
from what mountain the cloud issued, but it was after-
wards ascertained to proceed from Mount Vesuvius. I
cannot better describe its figure than by comparing it to
that of a pine tree,t for it shot up to a great height like
a trunk, and extended itself at the top into a kind of
branches; occasioned, I imagine, either by a sudden
gust of air that impelled it, the force of which decreased
as it advanced upwards, or by the expansion of the cloud
itself, when pressed back again by its own weight Some-
times it appeared bright, and sometimes dark and spotted,
as it became more or less impregnated with earth and
cinders. This extraordinary phenomenon excited my
uncle's philosophical curiosity to inquire into it more

* The Romans, as one means of preserving their health, were accustomed
daily to anoint their bodies with oil, and lie or walk naked in the sun.
| This resemblance has been noticed in later eruptions.

A DANGEROUS VOYAGE. 29

closely. He ordered a light vessel to be got ready for
him, and invited me to accompany him if I pleased. I
replied that I would rather continue my studies.

" As he was leaving the house, a note was brought to
him from Rectina, the wife of Bassus, who was in the
utmost alarm at the imminent peril which threatened
her ; for her villa being situated at the foot of Mount
Vesuvius, the only mode of escape was by sea. She
earnestly entreated him, therefore, to hasten to her assist-
ance. He accordingly changed his first design, and what
he began out of curiosity, now continued out of heroism.
Ordering the galleys to put to sea, he went on board,
with an intention of assisting not only Rectina, but
several others, for the villas are very numerous along that
beautiful shore. Hastening to the very place which other
people were abandoning in terror, he steered directly
towards the point of danger, and with so much com-
posure of mind, that he was able to make and to dictate
his observations on the changes and aspects of that
dreadful scene.

" He was now so nigh the mountain that the cinders,
which grew thicker and hotter the nearer he approached,
fell into the vessel, together with pumice-stones and
black pieces of burning rock ; and now the sudden ebb
of the sea, and vast fragments rolling from the mountain,
obstructed their nearer approach to the shore. Pausing
to consider whether he should turn back again, to which
he was advised by his pilot, he exclaimed, ' Fortune
befriends the brave : carry me to Pomponianus.'

" Pomponianus was then at Stabise,* separated by a

* Now Castellamare. (See ante, p. 23.)

jo PLINY ON SHORE.

gulf which the sea, after several windings, forms upon
the shore. He had already sent his baggage on board ;
for though not at that time in actual danger, yet being
within prospect of it, he was determined, if it drew nearer,
to put to sea as soon as the wind should change. The
wind was favourable, however, for carrying my uncle to
Pomponianus, whom he found in the greatest consterna-
tion. He embraced him tenderly, encouraging and
counselling him to keep up his spirits ; and still better to
dissipate his alarm, he ordered, with an air of unconcern,
the baths to be got ready. After having bathed, he
sat down to supper with great cheerfulness, or, what
was equally courageous, with all the semblance of
it.

" Meanwhile, the eruption from Mount Vesuvius broke
first in several places with great violence, and the dark-
ness of the night contributed to render it still more
visible and dreadful. But my uncle, to soothe the
anxieties of his friend, declared it was only the burning
of the villages, which the country people had abandoned
to the flames. After this, he retired to rest; and it is
certain he was so little discomposed as to fall into a deep
sleep; for being somewhat corpulent, and breathing hard,
those who attended without actually heard him snore.

" The court which led to his apartment being nearly
filled with stones and ashes, it would have been impos-
sible for him, had he continued there longer, to have
made his way out; it was thought proper, therefore, to
awaken him. He got up, and joined Pomponianus and
the rest of his company, who were not unconcerned
enough to think of going to bed. They consulted to-

A PHILOSOPHER'S DEATH. 31

gather which course would be the more prudent : to trust
to the houses, which now shook from side to side with
frequent and violent concussions; or escape to the open
country, where the calcined stones and cinders fell in
such quantities, as notwithstanding their lightness, to
threaten destruction. In this dilemma they decided on
the open country, as offering the greater chance of
safety ; a resolution which, while the rest of the company
hastily adopted it through their fears, my uncle embraced
only after cool and deliberate consideration. Then they
went forth, having pillows tied upon their heads with
napkins; and this was their sole defence against the
storm of stones that fell around them.

" It was now day everywhere else, but there a deeper
darkness prevailed than in the obscurest night, though it
was in some degree dissipated by torches and lights of
various kinds. They thought proper to go down farther
upon the shore, to ascertain whether they might safely
put out to sea; but found the waves still extremely high
and boisterous. There my uncle, having drunk a draught
or two of cold water, flung himself down upon a cloth
which was spread for him, when immediately the flames
and their precursor, a strong stench of sulphur, dispersed
the rest of the company, and compelled him to rise. He
raised himself with the assistance of two of the servants,
but instantly fell down dead ; suffocated, I imagine, by
some gross and noxious vapour, for his lungs had always
been weak, and he had frequently suffered from difficulty
of breathing. As soon as it was light again, which was
not till the third day after this melancholy accident, his
body was found entire, and free from any sign of vio-

(190; 3

32 PLINY THE YOUNGER.

lence, exactly in the same posture that he fell, so that he
looked more like one asleep than dead."

.
In his second letter to Tacitus, Pliny relates his own

experiences of the phenomenon.

" The letter which, in compliance with your request, I
wrote to you concerning my uncle's death, has raised, it
seems, your curiosity to know what terrors and dangers
attended me while I continued at Misenum; for there, I
think, the account in my former broke off.

" ' Though memory shrinks with backward start,
And sends a shudder to my heart,
I take the word.'*

" My uncle having left us, I pursued the studies which
had prevented my accompanying him, until it was time
to bathe. After which I went to supper (ad canani), and
from thence to bed, where my sleep was greatly broken
and disturbed. For days before there had been some
shocks of an earthquake, which the less surprised us as
they are extremely frequent in Campania ; but on that
night they were so particularly violent as not only to
shake everything about us, but to threaten total ruin.
My mother flew to my chamber, where she found me
already rising in order to awaken her. We went out
into a small court belonging to the house, which sepa-
rated it from the sea. As I was at that time but eighteen
years of age, I know not whether my behaviour in this
juncture may be called courage or rashness; but I took
up Livy, and amused myself with turning over that
author and making extracts from him, as if all about me

* Virgil, sEncid, book ii. (Conington's Translation, p. 35).

A SCENE OF TERROR. 33

had been in full security. While we were thus situated,
we were joined by a friend of my uncle's, who had come
from Spain on a visit to him ; and he, observing me sit-
ting by my mother with a book in my hand, strongly
censured her calmness, and reproved me for my careless
indifference. Nevertheless, I still went on with my
author.

" Day was rapidly breaking, but the light was exceed-
ingly faint and languid ; the buildings all around us tot-
tered; and though we stood upon open ground, yet, as
the area was narrow and confined, we could not remain
without certain and formidable peril, and we therefore
resolved to quit the town. The people followed us in a
panic of alarm, and, as to a mind distracted with terror
every suggestion seems more prudent than its own,
pressed in great crowds about us in our way out.

" As soon as we had reached a convenient distance
from the houses, we stood still, in the midst of a perilous
and most dreadful scene. The chariots which we had
ordered to be drawn out oscillated so violently, though
upon the most level ground, that we could not keep them
steady, even by supporting them with large stones. The
sea seemed to roll back upon itself, and to be driven
from its strands by the earth's convulsive throes ; it
is certain, at least, that the shore was considerably en-
larged, and that several marine animals were left upon it.
On the other side, a black and terrible cloud, bursting
with an igneous serpentine vapour, darted out a long
train of fire, resembling, but much larger than, the flashes
of lightning. Our Spanish friend, whom I have already
mentioned, now addressed himself to my mother and me

34 DARKNESS VISIBLE.

with great earnestness: 'If your brother — and your
uncle — is safe,' said he, ' he certainly would wish that
you were also ; if he has perished, it was his desire, no
doubt, that you might survive him ; why, then, do you
delay your escape one moment1?' We could never think
of our own safety, we replied, while uncertain of his.
Thereupon our friend took leave of us, and withdrew
from the danger with the utmost precipitancy.

" Soon afterwards the black cloud seemed to descend
and enshroud the whole ocean ; as, in truth, it entirely
concealed the island of Caprea and the headland of
Misenum. My mother implored me to make my escape
at any rate, which, as I was young, I might readily do ;
as for herself, she said, her age and corpulency rendered
the attempt useless. But she would gladly meet death,
if she could have the satisfaction of seeing that she was
not the occasion of mine. I absolutely refused to leave
her, and taking her by the hand I led her on ; she com-
plied reluctantly, and not without many reproaches to
herself for retarding my flight.

" The ashes now began to fall upon us, though in no
considerable quantity. Turning my head, I perceived
behind us a dense smoke, which came rolling in our
track like a torrent. I proposed, while there was yet
some light, to diverge from the high road, lest she should
be crushed to death in the dark by the crowd that fol-
lowed us. Scarcely had we stepped aside when darkness
overspread us ; not the darkness of a cloudy night, or
when there is no moon, but* that of a chamber which is
close shut, with all the lights extinct. And then nothing
could you hear but the shrieks of women, the cries of chil-

THE END OF ALL THINGS. 35

dren, and the exclamations of men. Some called aloud for
their little ones, others for their parents, others for their
husbands — being only able to distinguish persons by
their voices ; this man lamented his own fate, that man
the fate of his family ; not a few wished to die out of
very fear of death ; many lifted their hands to the gods ;
but most imagined that the last and eternal night was
come, which should destroy the world and the gods
together.* Among these were some who increased the
real terrors by imaginary ones, and made the terrified
multitude falsely believe that Misenum was actually in
flames. At length a glimmer of light appeared, which
we imagined to be rather the foretoken of an approach-
ing burst of flames, as in truth it was, than the return of
day. The fire, however, having fallen at a distance from
us, we were again immersed in dense darkness, and a
heavy shower of ashes fell upon us, which we were at
times compelled to shake off — otherwise we should have
been crushed and buried in the heap. I might boast
that, during all this scene of horror, not a sigh or expres-
sion of fear escaped me, had not my composure been
founded on that miserable though potent consolation,
that all mankind were involved in the same calamity,
and that I imagined I was perishing with the world
itself!

" After a while, this dreadful darkness gradually disap-
peared like a cloud of smoke ; the actual day returned, and
with it the sun, though very faintly, and as when an eclipse
is coming on. Every object that presented itself to our

* The later philosophers taught that all the world would be destroyed by fire,
and that the gods themselves would perish in this final conflagration.

36 ADDITIONAL DETAILS.

eyes (which were extremely weakened) seemed changed,
being covered with a crust of white ashes, like a deep
layer of snow. We returned to Misenum, where we
refreshed ourselves as well as we could, and passed an
anxious night between hope and fear, though, indeed,
with a much larger share of the latter; for the earth-
quake still continued, while several excited individuals
ran up and down, augmenting their own and their friends'
calamities by terrible predictions. However, my mother
and myself, notwithstanding the danger we had escaped,
and all which still impended, entertained no thoughts of
quitting the place until we should receive some account
from my uncle."

The interesting statements of Pliny the Younger have
been confirmed in every respect by scientific examination
of the buried cities. The eruption of the year 79 was
not accompanied by any of those seething rivers of
molten fiery lava which have been the principal feature
in later outbursts. Pompeii, from its elevated position,
coi'ld not have been destroyed by lava. It was buried
under a mass of calcined pumice-stone — lapillo, as the
Italians call it — which descended in such amazing quan-
tities as to form an accumulation over the city full twenty
feet in depth. Showers of rocks and stones were also
among the fatal agents of ruin, and vast streams of water,
and of wet sand or mud, which thickened into a species
of volcanic paste. This seems to have proved more
destructive than the lapillo i for it is evident, from the
researches made among the ruins, that many persons
who were escaping on the surface of the lapillo, or had
sheltered themselves in corners where it could not pene-

THE BURIED CITY. 3g

trate, were overtaken and buried by the mud. The
shocks of earthquake killed many — several skeletons
have been discovered of persons overwhelmed by a fall-
ing wall ; while others were suffocated, like the elder
Pliny, by the mephitic vapours with which the atmo-
sphere was charged.

The eruption was terrible in all its circumstances — the
rolling mud, the cloud of darkness, the flashes of electric
fire, the shaking earth — but yet more terrible in its
novelty of character and the seemingly wide range of its
influence. These combined causes would appear to
have exercised a fatal effect on the Pompeians, and but
for them "nearly all might have escaped. Thus, the
amphitheatre was crowded when the catastrophe oc-
curred, but only two or three skeletons have been found in
it, which probably were those of gladiators already killed
or wounded. The bold, the prompt, and the energetic
saved themselves by immediate flight ; those who lingered
through love or avarice, supine indifference, or palsying
fear, perished. A majority of the inhabitants probably
took to the sea. Judging from the number of bodies
found up to this date, we may infer that out of a popula-
tion of 20,000, some 2000 fell victims.

Many, to escape from the lapillo, sought refuge in the
lower rooms or underground cellars of their houses, but
there the steaming mud pursued and overtook them.
Had it been otherwise, they must have died of hunger
or suffocation, as all avenues of egress were absolutely
blocked up. Thus, in the suburban villa known as the
" House of Diomed," eighteen persons, mostly women,
had gathered in the spacious quadrangular cellar sur-

40 ELOQUENT MEMORIALS.

rounding the garden, but were overwhelmed by the in-
rush of the destroying flood. " This deluge of fluid
matter, which after a time became very tenacious earth,
surrounded and enclosed all the substances which it met,
and has preserved the impress and mould of them ; as,
for instance, of a wooden chest, and of a pile of small
logs of wood. The same thing happened to the unfor-
tunate human beings who have been discovered ; of their
flesh nothing has remained but the impress and mould
of it in the earth, and within are the bones in regular
order. Even the hair on the skulls is partly preserved,
and in some cases is seen to have been curled. Of the
dresses nothing but the mere ashes have been found ;
but these 'ashes preserved traces of the quality of the
materials, so that it could be easily seen whether the
texture was coarse or fine. Several of the persons
had upon their heads cloths which descended to the
shoulders ; two or three dresses, it would seem, were
worn over one another [for the convenience, perhaps, of
removing them] ; the stockings were of cloth and linen,
cut like long drawers ; some had no shoes at all. That
one woman was superior to the rest could be perceived
by the ornaments which she wore, by the fine texture of
her dress, and by the coins which were found near
her."*

The master of the house, Diomed himself, perished, it
is thought, through avarice. At the garden-gate two
skeletons were discovered ; ,pne, presumed to be Diomed,

* Quoted by Dr. Dyer from an Italian periodical, dated December i2th, 1772.
For authorities respecting the eruption of Vesuvius, see Lnndgrebe's elaborate
work on Volcanoes.

A TERRIBLE PICTURE. 41

held in his hand the key ; on his finger was a serpent-
ring; near him lay about a hundred gold and silver
coins. The other, probably a slave, was stretched on
the ground beside some silver vases. They would seem
to have been suffocated by the vapours while attempting
to escape. The incident has been made use of by Lord
Lytton in his romance of " The Last Days of Pompeii."
It is difficult, I think, to exaggerate the horrors of the
last day of the doomed city. The rumbling of the earth
beneath — the dense obscurity and murky shadow of the
heaven above — the long heavy roll of the convulsed sea
— the strident noise of the vapours and gases escaping
from the mountain-crater — the shifting electric lights,
crimson, emerald green, lurid yellow, azure, blood red,
which at intervals relieved the blackness, only to make
it ghastlier than before — the hot hissing showers which
descended like a rain of fire — the clash and clang of
meeting rocks and riven stones — the burning houses and
flaming vineyards — the hurrying fugitives, with wan faces
and straining eyeballs, calling on those they loved to
follow them — the ashes, and cinders, and boiling mud,
driving through the darkened streets, and pouring into
the public places — above all, that fine, impalpable, but
choking dust which entered everywhere, penetrating even
to the lowest cellar, and against which human skill could
devise no effectual protection ; — all these things must have
combined into a whole of such unusual and such awful
terror that the imagination cannot adequately realize it.
The stoutest heart was appalled ; the best balanced mind
lost its composure. The stern Roman soldier stood
rigidly at his post, content to die if discipline required it,

42 THE WA VE OF OBLIVION.

but even his iron nerves quailed at the death and de-
struction around him. Many lost their reason, and
wandered through the city gibbering and shrieking
lunatics. And none, we may be sure, who survived the
peril ever forgot the sights and scenes they had witnessed
on that day of doom !

The Emperor Titus, during his brief but busy reign,
contemplated the rebuilding of Pompeii. His scheme,
however, was not carried into execution. The inhabi-
tants evicted by the eruption would seem to have made
occasional excavations among the ruins to recover what
they could of their goods and chattels ; and the Emperor
Alexander Severus plundered the buried city of many of
its finest monuments and columns to embellish his public
works at Rome. But the troubles of the empire which
aftenvards ensued, and the successive irruptions of the
Northmen, soon occupied men's minds to such an extent
that the fate of Pompeii and Herculaneum ceased to be
remembered. Not only their site, but their name, sank
into oblivion ; although here and there the summit of
some of the buildings of Pompeii cropped up above the
soil, and the name of civtti, or the city, which still
lingered in the mouths of peasants, might have served to
identify its position. After the Renaissance, indeed,
references to the buried cities sometimes occur in Italian
authors.* Thus : Nicolo Perotto mentions Pompeii,
Herculaneum, and Stabiae in his " Cornucopia," published
in 1488; the "Herculaneum Oppidum" is marked in
the map of Ambrogio Leone, 1513, as the site occupied
by Portici ; and Leandro Alberti, in his " Descrizione

• Dr. Dyer, " Ruins of Pompeii," p. 18.

SIGNS OF THE PAST. 43

di tulla 1'Italia" (1561) recalls the burying of Hercu-
laneum, Stabiae, and Pompeii by the eruption of Vesuvius,
while indicating the spots where they were supposed to
have existed. Yet no excavations were made to discover
their ruins. Archaeology was not then a science. So
that when Dominico Fontana, the celebrated Roman
architect, carried a subterranean canal from the Sarno to
Torre del Greco, actually under the site of Pompeii, and
consequently met with the remains of its buildings, in-
scriptions, and other memorials, no spirit of scientific
curiosity induced him to undertake any researches. No
lover of antiquity was found to urge the exploration of
the vast remains which evidently existed there.*

Herculaneum, though buried under the lava-deposits
of several successive eruptions of Vesuvius, was discovered
before the sister city, and discovered accidentally.

In 1684 a baker at Portici sank a well on his premises,
which, at a depth of ninety feet, terminated near the stage
of the Herculaneum theatre. Some twenty-five years
,later the property was purchased by Prince Emmanuel
d'Elbceuf, who prepared to erect a palace upon it. In
1713, while enlarging the well, his workmen found some
marbles, with which the prince adorned his walls and
staircases. He continued his explorations for five years,
and discovered several ancient statues, which, however,
were claimed by the Austrian viceroy at Naples, and
despatched to Vienna. They were afterwards purchased
by Frederick Augustus, Elector of Saxony, and are still
preserved in the palace at Dresden.

The excavations were then discontinued until 1736,

* Ovcrbcck, "Pompeji in seinen GebauJcn," &c. (2 vols., Leipzig, 1866), p. 35.

44 THE WORK OF EXCA VA TION.

when they were renewed by order of King Charles III.,
and under the direction of Don Rocco Alcobierre, a
Spanish officer of engineers, who explored the great
theatre, a basilica, and some private houses, but being
totally ignorant of antiquities and of classical history,
perpetrated the most barbarous mutilations on the
valuable antiques which were recovered. While con-
ducting these researches, he was informed by some
inhabitants of Torre Annunziata that ancient remains
had been discovered about two miles from their town.
He accordingly commenced his explorations at the spot
now called the Street of Fortune, and was rewarded by
finding a skeleton, several coins, and a large fresco
painting. Stimulated by this " treasure-trove," he pushed
on the works with so much alacrity, that towards the close
of 1754 the whole of the amphitheatre was cleared out.

From that time to the present the excavations have
been regularly carried on, except for an interval of three
years (from 1813 to 1816). The yearly allowance pro-
vided by the Neapolitan government was, however, so
small, that only a very slow progress could be effected,
and not more than one-third of the city has been laid
bare in a century ! The great theatre was discovered in
1764; the Temple of Isis in 1765 and 1766; in 1766
the Temple of ^Esculapius ; in 1769 the smaller theatre ;
the House of Diomed in 1771-1774. The search, for
very many years, was conducted in a Vandal spirit, and
its sole object was to enrich the royal collection with
jewellery, curiosities in gold and silver, statues, and
paintings. No pious care was taken of the buildings and
monuments of the buried city. No plans were traced of

ROYAL VISITS. 45

the streets and houses uncovered. The true value of
the ruins lay in the life-like pictures they presented of the
manners and customs of Roman society, but this was not
apparent to the Neapolitan authorities. It is only of late,
and under the superintendence of the able and enlightened
Cavalier Fiorelli, the present director of the excavations,
that they have been conducted in a proper spirit. The
frescoes are now very carefully preserved ; the buildings,
where necessary, restored ; plaster casts are taken of the
bodies exhumed, and detailed plans made of the streets
and public places of the city.

Royal visits to the ruins were formerly very numerous,
and on these occasions some object of peculiar interest
was invariably discovered. The Emperor Joseph II., on
the 7th of April 1769, was accompanied on his progress
by his empress, Count Kaunitz, his minister, the king
and queen of Naples, Sir William Hamilton, then am-
bassador at Naples, and several distinguished antiquaries.
So brilliant a cortege was received by the genius loci with
becoming respect, and such was the number of articles
" found," that the shrewd and energetic emperor could
not refrain from hinting to the superintendent, Signor la
Vega, that they had been purposely placed there to
illustrate the good fortune of sovereigns. La Vega
having informed the emperor that only thirty persons
were employed on the works, he remonstrated with the
King of Naples on the slow progress that must necessarily
be made. All would be accomplished by degrees, a poco
a poco, replied the indifferent Bourbon ; whereupon
Joseph indignantly exclaimed that three thousand men
ought to be employed on so noble an enterprise, which

46 LATER VISITORS.

had not its like in any quarter of the globe, and was a
special distinction to the kingdom of Naples.

During the reign of Joachim Murat, his accomplished
queen, Caroline Bonaparte, frequently visited the ruins.
She took a special interest in the progress of the explora-
tions, and it was her patronage that enabled Mazois to
commence his superb work on Pompeii. Among other
royal visitors may be named Queen Adelaide, the Em-
peror Francis II., the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the
Emperor Alexander I. of Russia, the Grand Dukes of
Russia (Alexander II. and Constantine), and King
Frederick William of Prussia, — whose names have been
bestowed on some of the more notable houses.

Other houses, it should be explained, have been dis-
tinguished by the supposed pursuits of their owners, or
the interesting articles found within them. Thus, we
have the Houses of Diomed, of Sallust, of Pansa, of
Cicero, of Rufus, of M. Lucretius, of the Tragic Poet, of
the Surgeon, of the Faun, of the Fountain, of the
Centaur, of the Painted Columns. In a similar fashion
has been determined the nomenclature of the streets.

With these introductory remarks, I proceed to a
description of all that is at present interesting in the
public and private edifices of the buried city.

II.

of ilw Citn.

"

" I stood within the city disinterred,

And heard the autumnal leaves, like light footfalls
Of spirits passing through the streets ; and heard
The Mountain's slumberous voice at intervals
Thrill through those roofless halls."

SHELLEY.

stood on an insulated hill or plateau
of moderate elevation and of an oval shape,
surrounded by lava which, at some remote
antiquity, had been poured forth from the
entrails of Vesuvius. Its highest point was occupied by
the Forum. The length of this confined area was about
seven furlongs, its breadth under half a mile, its entire
circuit nearly two miles. The whole town was surrounded
by walls except on the west, where it was sufficiently pro-
tected by the steepness of the declivity. It was formerly-
supposed that the sea washed this side of Pompeii, but
on the tract now intervening between the town and the
waves Dr. Overbeck has discovered the remains of
ancient buildings.* On the east it was bounded by the
Sarno, which, now but a shallow rivulet, was formerly
navigable for a short distance above its mouth. Three

(190)

Oveibeck, " Pompeji," &c.

4

48 rOSITlON OF POMPEII.

principal roads approached it : one, from Naples, ran
along the sunny coast through Herculaneum, Retina, and
Oplontis ; a second diverged from the Popilian Via at
Nola ; and the third consisted of two branches from
Nocera and Stabiae, which united into one before reaching
the Sarnus.

Thus situated, it seemed to possess all the local ad-
vantages which the most zealous citizen could have
desired for his birth-place. On the edge of the sea, at
the entrance to a fertile plain, on the bank of a navigable
river, and at the base of the vine-clad slopes of Vesuvius,
it combined the strength and security of a military station
with the facilities and conveniences of a commercial town.
Its neighbourhood in every direction was studded with
glittering villas, and the shore of the " Baian Ocean,"
even as far as Naples, was so thronged with gardens and
hamlets as to appear one city — an Elysian city, bathed in

" The purple noon's transparent light."

Itwas surrounded — this fair and once-fortunate Pompeii
— with walls on every side but the western or seaward ;
these, for the greater part of their circuit, are curvilinear,
and without any projecting angles. On the north and
north-east they consist of an earthen terrace or agger,
fourteen feet wide, walled and counter-walled, and
ascended from the city by flights of steps, broad enough
to admit the passage of several men abreast. The outer
face, including the battlement, was about twenty-five feet
high, and undefended by a ditch; the inner measured
a few feet higher, but was useless in a military sense,
though serving to give a more important character to the

fTS WALLS AND GA TES. 49

fortifications. Both walls are built of large blocks of
volcanic tufa and travertine, laid in horizontal courses
without cement. Here and there patches of later work,
known as opus incertum, and consisting of fragments of
stone and lava embedded in mortar and coated with
stucco, have been introduced; to repair, perhaps, the
portions injured by Sulla's siege machines.

At intervals the walls were strengthened with square
towers, constructed with small rough pieces of tufa, plain
in front, but stuccoed and decorated on the sides. Near
the western gate they are only eighty paces distant from
each other, but towards the east they are planted at two,
three, and even four hundred and eighty paces. Each
consisted of several stories, had a sally-port, and an arch-
way to enable the troops, when necessary, to move along
the agger. About ten are still extant, though sorely di-
lapidated,— a circumstance which Sir William Cell attri-
butes to injuries sustained in the siege by Sulla at the
end of the Social War.

There were eight Gates. The most important was that
of Herculaneum, at the north-west; thrown across the
Via Domitiana, a branch of the Appian Way which led
to Herculaneum, and thence to Rome. For about a
quarter of a mile from the entrance the road is lined with
tombs, in accordance with the Roman custom. Hence it is
now known as the Strada delle Tombe, or Street of Tombs.
The gate was double, so as to offer a greater obstacle to
assault. The agger was ascended by ten irregular steps,
and strengthened by massive buttresses of stone. Like
Temple Bar, the Herculaneum gate possessed a large
central and two small lateral entrances; the former open

50 THE HERCULANEUM GATE.

to the sky, the latter vaulted; the former measuring
14^ feet broad and 20 feet high; the latter, for foot-pas-
sengers, 4^ feet wide and 10 feet high. Passing through
the archway, you would see before you a considerable
ascent. On the left, outside the gate, stood a pedestal,
formerly supporting a colossal statue of bronze, which
represented, perhaps, the tutelary deity of the city.
There was also a niche where a soldier mounted guard,
and the skeleton of one of Rome's legionaries was dis-
covered in it, still grasping his heavy lance, the rusty
armour clanking on his fleshless bones. Even the hour
of doom, which must have seemed to all the last agony
of the suffering earth, had failed to break the rigid
bonds of discipline, or shake his blind fidelity to his
post. The lightnings shivered, the earth shook, and the
hissing rain descended; but enough for him that he had
not received permission to escape.

The other gates resembled that of Herculaneum in
design as well as in construction. The second led to
Vesuvius, whose sides were then clothed with vineyards ;
the third to luxurious Capua; the fourth to Nola; the
fifth was the Gate of the Sarnus ; the sixth that of Stabiae;
the seventh, the Gate of the Theatres; and the eighth,
the Sea Gate or Porta della Marina, leading to the
harbour.

The Nola Gate lies within a passage formed of stout
masonry, forming a sort of " covered way," which must
have proved a dangerousxdefile to an attacking force.
The keystone of the arch is ornamented with a sculp-
tured head and an Oscan inscription ; the latter setting
forth that the gate was erected by one Vibius Popidius,

STREETS OF POMPEII. 51

the Medixtuticus or head-magistrate of the city. Out-
side the gate was a cemetery, appropriated to the Alex-
andrian portion of the population.

The Gate of the Theatres, excavated in 1851, is of great
antiquity. It appears to have been closed with massive
double doors. An Oscan inscription in the gateway re-
corded the names of some of the streets and principal
objects in Pompeii.

The entrances to the city now in use are the Hercu-
laneum Gate, the Sea Gate, and the Gate of Stabiae.

The Streets of Pompeii can never have presented a
stately or superb appearance, from their extreme nar-
rowness. Excepting the principal thoroughfares, none
will admit the passage of two chariots abreast. The
widest, including the side footway, does not exceed 93
English feet. Their pavement consists of large irregular
pieces of lava joined together with great care ; the ruts
worn by Pompeian chariot-wheels are still conspicuous.
Their appearance in the old time has been described by
Lord Lytton as a scene of " glowing and vivacious ex-
citement," owing, not to any architectural graces, but to
" the sparkling fountains, that at every vista threw up-
wards their graceful spray in the summer air; the crowd
of passengers, or rather loiterers, mostly clad in robes of
the Tyrian dye; the gay groups collected round each
more attractive shop ; the slaves passing to and fro with
buckets of bronze, cast in the most graceful shapes, and
borne upon their heads; the country girls stationed at
frequent intervals with baskets of blushing fruit and
flowers; the numerous haunts which fulfilled with that

5? *THE MAIN STREETS.

idle people the office of cafe's and clubs at this day; and
the shops, where on shelves of marble were ranged the
vases of wine and oil, and before whose thresholds,
seats, protected from the sun by a purple awning, invited
the weary to rest and the indolent to lounge."*

In the wider streets, stepping-stones are placed at fre-
quent intervals in the centre for the convenience of the
pedestrian. On either side runs a kerb, about twelve to
eighteen inches high, and separating the foot-pavement
from the road. In obedience to a provision of the law
of Caius Gracchus, De viis muniendis, stones and steps
for mounting horses are raised at the edge of the foot-
way, and holes made in the kerb opposite the principal
houses and shops for fastening the halters.

Of the streets excavated up to the present date, five
may be looked upon as the main arteries of the pleasure
and business of Pompeii. These are : —

(i.) The Domitiana, or Consularis, leading from the
Herculaneum Gate to the Forum. It receives several
minor streets on either hand, forming Trivia, or places
where three ways meet ;

(2.) The Street of Abundance, or of the Dried Fruits,
only partially revealed to modern eyes, seems to have
ran in a straight line from the Gate of the Sarno to the
Forum;

(3.) The Street of the Baths, of Fortune, and of Nola,
as it is successively called, struck from the Gate of Nola
to the sea;

(4.) The fourth led fromxthe Gate of Vesuvius to that
ofStabise; and

* Lord Lytton, " Last Days of Pompeii," book L, chap. ».

THE BUSIEST HIGHWA Y. 53

(5.) The fifth, called in the upper part the Street of
Mercury, and in the lower, the Street of the Forum,
passed from the north wall of the city to the Forum,

STRADA DI SALLUSTIO.

and was the "busiest, broadest, and most animated of all
the Pompeian thoroughfares.

The stranger wandering over Pompeii in search of the
curious or interesting, would have had his attention very

5* MURAL LITERATURE.

forcibly drawn to the street literature blazoned on the
walls. The Pompeians, for instance, at election time,
gave vent to their partizanship, like English electors, in
satires and pasquinades. These were painted in large
letters in red and black paint, or sometimes scrawled in
charcoal. Old advertisements were wiped out with a coat
of white, on which the fresh inscriptions were duly re-
corded. In many cases the new coating has fallen off,
revealing the old letters, which are generally in the Oscan
character, and belong to a period anterior to the Social
War. The activity of Pompeian schoolboys is shown by
rude scratchings of Greek letters ; the youthful Lepidus
endeavouring, it may be, to outvie his comrade Scaurus
in illustrating the Greek alphabet.

In the amphitheatre has been found a mass of inscrip-
tions, whose number suggested the following epigram : —

" Admirer paries te non cecidisse r(uinam\

Qui tot scriptorum taedia s us tineas."

[I marvel, O wall, that thou hast not fallen into ruin, sustaining as thou dost
the tediousness of so many writers.]

The electioneering advertisements are mostly uniform
in style, and contain the names of the favourite candi-
date, and of the persons who support his claims, termi-
nating with the formula O. V. R, that is, Grant (or oral)
vos faciatis: in other words — We hope you will appoint
so-and-so.* On the wall of the so-called House of
Pansa appears the following: "Pansam: sed: Paratus
rogat" — Paratus solicits you to appoint Pansa as aedile.
From this inscription we might infer that the house where
it is found belonged to Paratus and not to Pansa. if

* Overbeck, " Ptmpeji," ii. chap. 6, pp. 94-115.

ITS AMENITIES. 55

Mr. Smith wished to recommend Mr. Brown as vestry-
man, I do not think he would plaster his bills on Brown's
mansion. A curious notice is recorded by Overbeck :

" Sabinum aed[ilem] Procule fac et ille te faciet."
[O Proculus, make Sabine aedile, and he will make thee.]

In our British elections this system of mutual profit is
often acted upon, but never, I think, so unblushingly
avowed. The epithets bestowed upon the candidates
are, of course, eulogistic. The would-be sedile is
bonus, probissimus, verecundissimus, juvenis integer, juvenis
egregius, bonus civis, dignus reipublicce, and the like.

Here is another example :

" M. Holconium Priscum decemvirum juri dicendo O. V. F. Philippus."

[Philippus beseeches you to create M. Holconius Priscus a decemvir of jus-
tice— justice of peace.]

Another inscription runs :

" Marcum . Cerrinium . Vatiam . ^Edilem . Oral . Ut . Faveat(is).
Scriba . Issus : Dignus Est."

[The scribe Issus requests you to support M. Cerrinius Vatia as aedile. He
is worthy.]

Many of the recommendations proceed from the
trade-guilds or corporations, which would seem to have
been numerous and powerful at Pompeii. I find men-
tioned :

Offertores (dyers). Aurifices (goldsmiths).

Pistores (bakers). Pomarii (fruiterers).

Caeparii (green-grocers). Lignarii (wood-vendors).

Plostrarii (cartwrights). Salinenses (salters).

Piscicapi (fishermen). Agricolas (husbandmen).

Forenses (lawyers). Muliones (muleteers).

Saccarii (sugar-dealers). Culinarii (cooks).

Fullones (fullers) Lanifricarius (a wool-washer).

Perfusor (perfumer). Caupones (innkeepers/.

56 POMPEIAN GRAFFITI.

These titles have suggested to the street wits of Pom-
peii an occasional squib, and recommendations are set
forth from the scribibi (late tipplers), the dormientes uni-
verst (all the free guild of slumberers), and the pilicrepi
(or ball players). Some pedantic schoolmaster is made
to come forward with wretched grammar: Vatentius, cum
discentes suos (Valentius and his pupils).

The graffiti (inscriptions scratched with a sharp in-
strument on the stucco), and the more ambitious painted
legends, are of the most various character, embodying a
puff, a notice, a wise saying, a jest, a quotation from
popular poets, or an amateur essay in versification.
Occasionally they indulge in satirical depreciation of —
let us say — Aliquis for not inviting Nemo to sup-
per ; or they praise Rufus as a liberal host ; or they
express his love for the beautiful Lalage ; or bring
the public acquainted with the state of his health.
Often the first inscription receives its comment in
another, just as in Hotel Albums or Visitors' Books
one traveller records his opin-
ion of the remark of his pre-
decessor. Within the houses
they have usually a domestic
character. The mistress jots
down the birth-day of her
eldest son, or the number of
tunics and togas sent to the
dyer or the washerwoman, or
R WALT. CARICATURE fhe daily consumption of oil

IN POMPEII.

and wine.
The Winchester school-boy will be reminded of the

A FEW SPECIMENS. 57

famous "Aut disce, aut discede ; aut memet suo tertia
csedi" (Learn or go; the third alternative is to be
flogged), by the following : —

" Otiosis hie locus non est, discede morator."
[This is no place for the idle — let the dawdler begone !]

And just as Mr. Webster or Mr. Buckstone advertises
the performance at the Adelphi or the Haymarket, a
keeper of gladiators in the Strada degli Augustali an-
nounces,— *

" A. Suettii Certi aedilis familia gladiatoria pugnabit Pompeis pridie Kalendas

Junias; venatio et vela erunt."

[The gladiator company of the aedile Certus will fight at Pompeii the day
before the Kalends of June ; there will be a venatio and awnings.]

To another announcement is added " qua dies patentur,"
equivalent to our English " weather permitting."

I transcribe from Overbeck a few of a poetical cast : —

" Quid pote tarn durum saxso aut quid mollius unda ?

Dura tamen molli saxsa cavantur aqua."

[What so hard as stone, what softer than water ! Yet the hard rocks are
hollowed by the soft water.]

This Ovidian couplet has been wrongly spelt by some
poetical Pompeian. A more original mind has trusted
to his own resources, and favoured posterity with, — •

" Alliget hie auras si quis obiurgat amantes
Et vetet assiduas currere fontis aquas."

[If any one can restrain the lover, he may also bind the breezes, and forbid
the perennial spring to flow.]

A hungry diner-out exclaims, —

" L. Istacidi ! At quern non csenae barbarus ille mihi est ! "

[L. Istacidius ! What a barbarian not to ask me to supper !]

* Overbeck, " Pompeji," ii. 99 (Leipzig, 1866).

53 POMPE1AN SHOPS.

Love seems to have entered largely into Pompeian
life, for a majority of the inscriptions refer to the uni-
versal passion. How the boys of London would titter
if they saw written on a " dead wall " some such effusion
as the following : —

" Methe Cominiaes atellana amat Chrestum corde, sit utreisque
Venus Pompeiana propitia ct semper Concordes veivant."

[Methe, the slave of Cominia, loves Chrestus with all her heart : may the Pom-
peian Venus be propitious to both, and may they always live happily together !]

On the wall of the peristyle of the corner-house in the
Strada della Fortuna and Vicolo dei Scienziati is scratched
a record of the spinning-tasks allotted to the female slaves,
with the weight of wool for each (spensa, spelt peso).
Their names were, — Vitalis, Florentina, Amaryllis, Jan-
uaria, Heracla, Mdria (female of Marius), Lalagia (com-
pare Horace's Lalage), Cerusa, Damalis, and Doris.*

Having satisfied himself with these specimens of the
street literature of Pompeii, our wanderer may next direct
his observations to the shops. To see the best of these
he will have to enter the Strada dell' Abondanza, also
called the Street of the Silversmiths ; but they are no-
where equal to the shops of a second-rate street in an
English provincial town. They were usually built round
the houses of the wealthier classes, whom they furnished
with a very respectable income. From an inscription at
Pompeii we learn that one Julia Felix was the owner of
nine hundred. The walls were painted in gaudy colours ;
the tradesman's sign was placed over his door ; the whole
front was open, but closed at night by shutters, which

* Overbeck, "Pompeji," ii. 112, 113.

A BAKER'S.

59

slided in grooves cut in the lintel and basement wall
before the counter, and by the door.

Here is the shop of a pistor, or baker. Let us enter.
The oven is placed at the end of the counter furthest
from the street. The three steps on the left are crowded,
you see, with different sorts of measures.

© ©

©

Tn

a. The kerb, with holes for fastening the halters of horses and mules.

b. The foot-pavement. rf. Staircase, leading to upper story.

c. The shop. e . Back rooms (very small).

It may here be noted that the Pompeian bakers or
cooks were celebrated for their manufacture of a pickle
called garum, which was made of the entrails of fish
macerated in brine. It was sold at the rate of a thousand
sesterces for two congii, or about £4. a gallon. An in-
ferior kind, called alec, was made with anchovies.* The
shop we are now examining appears to have been a depot
for the sale of this and other liquids, of dressed and

* Pliny, " Natural History," xxxi. 43.

6o

A THERMOPOLIUM.

undressed provisions. The rooms at the back of the
shop are of insignificant dimensions. A staircase in the
corner leads to an upper story.

A corner shop near the Forum seems to have been a
Thertnopolium, or shop for the sale of hot drinks. Its
walls are brightly painted in blue panels with vermilion
borders ; slabs of marble line the counter. A curious

THERMOPOLIUM AT POMPEII.

machine for the preparation of warm drinks has been dis-
covered. It may be compared to a modern urn or
tripod, supported by three legs. A section of it. with its
conical cover, is shown in the accompanying illustration :
a a, is the body of the urn : b, a small cylindrical furnace
in the centre ; it has four holes in the bottom, as shown
in the plan at gy to provide for the escape of the ashes.

A C UK 10 US UTENSIL.

6l

and to create a draught : c, is a vase-shaped mouth,
through which the water was poured in, serving also for
the emission of steam : d, a tube which, by means of a
cock, served to let off the warm liquid ; it is placed thus
high to prevent the pipe being stopped up by the ingre-
dients decocted : e, is a conical cover, whose hollow is
closed by a thin and somewhat concave plate : f, a
movable flat cover, with a hole in the centre, which
closes the whole urn except the mouth of the small fur-
nace : n n, nuts and screws to fasten this movable cover
on the rim of the urn : i i, the rim, convex externally,
and concave internally, which, the cover being put on,
receives into its concavity the rim of the mouth of the
furnace.*

The shops in Pompeii are all of the same character,
differing only in size, fittings, and decorations. We may
therefore betake ourselves in the next place on a visit to
the public buildings of the city ; among which the Forum
will necessarily claim our earliest attention.

* Pompeii (in " Library of Entertaining Knowledge "), vol. i. p. 127. See also
Donaldson's " Pompeii."

III.

Jfjorum.

" In many a heap the ground
Heaves, as if Ruin in a frantic mood
Had done his utmost. Here and there appears,
As left to show his handiwork, not ours,
An idle column, a half-buried arch."

ROGERS.

|N the old days of Roman power, the Forum,
in every Roman city, was the great centre
of business, of pleasure, of the public life of
the people. It served alike lor commercial
purposes and for the administration of justice ; it was a
market, an Exchange, a place of civic assemblage. It
included our Law Courts, our Public Halls, our West-
minster Abbey, our Houses of Parliament, our Newgate
and Covent Garden Markets, in one common enclosure.
There the idler gossipped with others as indolent as him-
self ; there the merchants trafficked ; there the orator
harangued ; there the decemviri decided the cases brought
before them ; there you might buy the piscatory products
of the Mediterranean, or rare fruits and dainties from
Candia or Cyprus. Under the porticoes were gathered
various trades : the money-changers clinked their glitter-
ing coins in the stalls below ; in the tabularia were ex-

(190)

THE FORUM OF POMPEII. 65

hibited the public records ; the praetor sat in the basilica
to administer the laws. It is impossible to imagine a
scene more animated or interesting than the Forum at
Pompeii must have presented in the brightest period of
its history. Under a cloudless sky of blue was transacted
all the business of life, and at this elevated central-point
concentrated those who lived to toil, no less than those
who lived to make a toil of pleasure. The semi-mari-
time, semi-luxurious character of Pompeii, which was both
a commercial port and a fashionable watering-place, lent
a peculiar aspect of gaiety to the spectacle ; for in the
same crowd mingled the Roman patrician, the graceful
Greek, the Alexandrian, the Cypriote, the Jew money-
changer, their various costumes radiant with many colours.
Most of the streets of Pompeii led up a considerable
ascent to the elevated site of the Forum, which was dis-
tant about four hundred yards from the Herculaneum
Gate and from the Great Theatre.

It is surrounded on three sides by Doric columns of
grayish-white limestone, each column being about 1 2 feet
in height, and 2 feet 3-^ inches in diameter. Above this
colonnade was formerly a gallery. On the east stood a
more ancient arcade, with Doric columns of tufa, which,
having been injured by the earthquake of 63, was re-
building at the time of the last great catastrophe. The
open central area was paved with slabs of limestone. In
front of the columns, and of the southern and western
porticoes, stood ornamental pedestals of white marble,
which, when crowned with statues — some of them eques-
trian— must have contributed materially to the beauty
and interest of the spot. They are decorated with a

66 TEMPLE OF JUPITER.

Doric frieze, and one still retains its dedicatory inscrip-
tion:— *

C CVSPIO. C. F. PANS>E

ii. VIR. J. D. 1VART. QVING.

EX. D. D. PEE. PVR

The names of eminent Pompeian citizens are inscribed
upon other pedestals, including Sallust, Gellianus, Rufus,
Scaurus.

At the north end of the Forum stands the TEMPLE
OF JUPITER, raised upon an elevated basement, and occu-
pying a position which renders it dominant over the whole
city, like the Temple of the Capitoline Jove at Rome.
It is prostyle (irpo, and orvAos), that is, it has a detached
columnar portico in front ; of the Corinthian order ; the
columns are pycnostyle (TTUKVOS, and orvAos), or placed
close together ; while the portico is hexastyle, or embel-
lished with six columns in front, and three at each side.
These columns are of the fluted Corinthian pattern. A
row of pillars runs on each side along the interior of the
cella (or nave), which seems to have been open to the
airs of heaven. It is probable that there were two ranges
of columns within the cella, one above another, and that
the floor of a gallery rested on the lower tier. The clear
space or open area of the said cella was about 42 feet
by 28 feet 6 inches. The interior has been painted,
chiefly in black and red. A broad border of black and
white mosaic encloses the pavement, which is formed of
lozenge-shaped pieces of marble. The entrance is ap-
proached by a flight of steps, ornamented with pedestals
for colossal statues. Exclusive of this approach, it mea-

* Sir W. Cell, " Pompeiana," i. 33.

THE DUNGEONS. 67

sured 100 feet in length, and 43 feet in width. Its total
height, including the basement, was about 60 feet.

When exhumed in 1817-18 many relics of the past
were discovered among its ruins. There was a colossal
head of the god whose worship was conducted within
the fane ; a votive offering, in bronze, of a woman carry-
ing her infant ; a torso of good workmanship, with a
statue outlined on its back, and intended to have been
cut out of it ; a bronze helmet ; a patera ; a plate ; and
two skeletons, one of which had been crushed in the
middle by the falling of a marble column; — mute yet
eloquent witnesses of the sudden destruction which fell
upon the unfortunate city !

A low brick arch, adjoining the south-western end of
the basement, opens into the Prisons — dark, narrow,
windowless dungeons, whose only light was the faint
glimmering that penetrated through the iron grates of
the doors. Several skeletons were found in them, with
rusty shackles still encircling their leg bones. When the
fire and the cloud fell upon Pompeii, the gaolers escaped,
giving never a thought of the terrible fate to which they
abandoned the inmates of their gloomy cells.

At the other angle of the temple stands a gateway,
which was evidently intended as a triumphal arch. Its
massive piers, and part of the columns that embellished
them, remain. In each pier were two attached fluted
Corinthian columns of white marble, excellently wrought.
Between them was a square-headed niche, inclosing
statues ; one of which seems to have been connected
with a fountain, the water flowing from a vase or cornu-
copia placed in the hands of the figures.

68 ANCIENT MEASURES.

The ancient Romans loved the music and the sparkle
of running water, and adorned their cities plenteously
with "silvery shafts of spray," which gave a delightful
coolness to the air and a grateful pleasure to the senses.
Statues, chiefly of bronze, applied to this purpose, were
numerous at Pompeii. Among others have been found
two boys, of exquisite workmanship, carrying vases on
their shoulders, and two others holding masks, both
masks and vases resting on pedestals. Water was carried
through the figures in leaden pipes, and allowed to run
in a glittering stream through the masks and vases.

Adjoining the prisons stood a long narrow edifice used
as a granary or store-house ; and in a recess under the
colonnade of the Forum were found the public measures
for grain, oil, and wine. The measure for grain consists
of a thick horizontal slab of stone, pierced perpendicu-
larly by two inverted cones, truncated at the smaller end.
Underneath were placed the baskets or sacks, and a flat
piece of wood was held in such wise as to prevent the
grain from escaping at the bottom, until, the measure
being full, the contents, on the removal of the wood, fell
into the proper receptacle. " Bonucci mentions a stone,"
says Sir William Cell, " in the Royal Museum at Naples,
which contains measures of liquids as well as of solids,
and with the names of the magistrates to authenticate
them. Such public measures were probably common to
all the cities of antiquity. Travellers may observe one
of these stones in a wall near the north gate of Fondi ;
and another, with three different measures, on the ground
near that of Naples." *

* Sir \V. Gell. " Pompciuua," i. 33.

TEMPLE OF VENUS. 69

The reader must understand that the buildings I have
now described are all situated on the north side of the
Forum. Let him suppose that we next continue our
journey of exploration along its western border, facing
towards the city and the distant Mediterranean. After
passing the granary he will see, on the right, the largest
and most magnificent of all the Pompeian buildings, —

THE TEMPLE OF VENUS.

Antiquarians are not agreed, it is true, upon its proper
appellation. When first discovered it was considered to
be a temple of Bacchus, from two pictures of a Bacchic
character which were found within its inclosure. It has
also been called the House of the Dwarfs, from a series
of quaintly humorous dwarf figures painted on the wall.
But when we consider that Venus was the patron goddess
of Pompeii, we may reasonably infer that to her worship
and in her honour would be dedicated the superbest
temple. Moreover, a statue of the ideal beauty, recall-
ing in its modest expression * the famous chef-tTteitort
at Florence, —

" There, too, the Goddess lives in stone, and fills
The air around with beauty ; we inhale
The ambrosial aspect, which, beheH, instils
Part of its immortality " —

that Medicean statue which has " charmed the world "
— and a bust of the goddess, found in the cella, — would
seem to confirm this supposition.t And if the following

* M. Marc Monnier, " Pompei et les Pompeiens" (in "Tour du Monde").
vol. v., p. 393.

t Overbeck, "Pompeji," i. 101.

70 STS DIMENSIONS.

translation of an inscription discovered on the spot be
correct, the question need not further be discussed :

M. HOLCONFVS . RVFVS. D. V. I. I). TER.
C. EGNATIVS . POSTHVMVS . D. V. I. T. TEK.
EX . D. D. IVS . I.VM1NVM.
OPSTRVENDORVM . HS. 00 00 00
REDEMERVNT . COL. YEN. COR.

VSQVE . AD . TEGVLAS.

FACIVNT. CURARVNT.

[Marcus Holconius Rufus and Caius Ignatius Posthumus, decemvirs of justice
for the third time, by a decree of the Decurions, bought again the right
of closing the openings for three thousand sesterces, and took care to
erect a private wall to the collegium of the incorpoiatcd Vcnerei up to the
roof.]

It has been remarked that these openings were pro-
bably between the massive piers on the side next the
colonnade of the Forum, and that, previous to their
being closed, the public could see into the area sur-
rounding the fane of Venus. As the rites of the goddess
were too frequently of a licentious character, one can
easily understand why the magistrates would wish to
shut them off from the public gaze.

Let us now endeavour to restore the Temple in all its
pristine magnificence.

An open area, 150 feet long by 75 feet wide, is sur-
rounded by a peristyle of forty-eight marble columns,
forming a portico or arcade between thirteen and four-
teen feet in breadth. The columns are painted yellow
in the lower portion, and white in the upper. They
were originally Doric, but, 'as you see, have been altered
to Corinthian, the prevailing fashion, and clumsily spoiled
in the alteration. In one of them a perforation has been

ITS INTERIOR. 71

made to receive the pipe which conducted water for the
sacrifices into a basin placed upon a circular fluted
pedestal. A consular figure was found here, and it has
been supposed that a similar figure was placed before
each column of the colonnade.

At the upper end of this open area stands the Temple,
upon an elevated basement. You ascend to it by a
flight of eleven steps, in front of which is placed a large
altar, covered with a slab of black lava. According to
some authorities, its form is only adapted for offerings of
cakes, fruit, and incense, the usual offerings to Venus ;
but others assert that the slab, when exhumed, contained
three receptacles for fire, and that the ashes of victims
were discovered on it. An inscription on the east side,
repeated on the west, records that the quartumviri,
M. Porcius, M. F. L. Sixtitius, L. F. Cn. Cornelius, and
Cn. F. A. Cornelius, erected it at their own expense.

The walls under the colonnade are vividly painted in
many colours, representing, on a black ground, villas
and landscapes, dwarfs, pigmies, battles with crocodiles,
dancers, sacrifices to Priapus, and various designs of an
Egyptian character ; which would seem to show that
eventually the worship of Osirei had been combined
with that of Venus. Within the cella, which is small,
was found a beautiful mosaic border, and, in an apart-
ment beyond, an admirable fresco of Silenus playing on
the lyre to the Infant Bacchus. This had been removed
from some other place, and carefully fastened in its
present situation with iron cramps and cement.

Continuing our circuit of the Forum, we next arrive,

72 THE CROWDED FORUM.

on the western side, at the Basilica ; but may pause for
a moment to survey once again the animated spectacle
which the crowded area presents.

In yonder stalls, with their glittering heaps before
them, sit the money-changers, trafficking with busy mer-

fRESCO. A LANDSCAPE (t

IPEIl).

chants, and with seamen, noticeable for their diversities
of costume — Greeks from the ^Egean, Asiatics from the
shores of Asia Minor, Tunisians, and Egyptians from
the mouth of the Nile. The lawyers and the clients,
clothed in long togas, arexstreaming in a ceaseless pro-
cession towards the seats of the magistrates ; for Law
had its priests, its worshippers, and its victims in the

A BUSY SCENE. 73

first as well as in the nineteenth century. Under the
Doric colonnade stand several idlers, refreshing them-
selves with a light repast of pieces of bread soaked in
diluted wine, and discussing with eager gossip the last
bit of scandal or the latest news arrived from Rome.
In the open space various petty traders are exercising
the arts of their calling. One man recommends his
ribbons to a country dame ; another sells to a Cam-
panian peasant a pair of heavy shoes ; a third supplies
hot drinks from his small and portable stove ; a fourth
is a schoolmaster, expounding to his puzzled scholars
the mysteries of the Greek alphabet. In the gallery
above have collected the more opulent citizens of Pom-
peii, intent, as their grave countenances show, upon
serious business.

Lo now ! the crowd gives way, and through the respect-
ful throng some senator advances to join his illustrious
confreres in the Temple of Jupiter. In and out of the
public granaries pass the corn-dealer and the wine-seller,
to measure their respective wares, and negotiate their
sale or exchange. Merrily murmurs the fountain in the
niche of yonder arch, on whose bronzed and equestrian
statue of Caligula the sunshine glances and shimmers.
The poorer citizens, with panniers under their arms, force
their way through yonder small vestibule into the Pan-
theon, where the priests, at a platform placed between two
columns, have exposed for sale such provisions as they
could rescue from the sacrifice.

Nothing, in a word, can exceed in variety — as Lord
Lytton remarks * — the costumes, the ranks, the manners,

* Lord Lytton, " Last Days of Pompeii," bk. iii. c. i.

74 THE BASILICA.

the occupations of the crowd; nothing can exceed the
bustle, the gaiety, the animation, the flow and flush of
life all around. You see here all the myriad signs of a
heated and feverish civilization, where pleasure and com-
merce, idleness and labour, avarice and ambition, mingle
in one gulf their motley, rushing, yet harmonious
streams.
So we follow the togaed train of lawyers into

THE BASILICA.

The idea of a Basilica was of Greek origin. This,
indeed, might be inferred from its name : BCUTIAIKT; (sc.
oroa), a regal portico, where the Athenian "King
Archon" (Archon-Basileus) sat to administer justice
publicly. The first erected at Rome was built by
Marcus Porcius Cato, the censor, about 182 B.C. ;
and was quickly followed by the Basilica Fulvia, the
Basilica Sempronia, and, under the Empire, the Ba-
silica Julia, the Basilica Ulpia of Trajan, and the
Basilica of Constantine. It was invariably of an ob-
long form, its breadth not more than one-half, and
not less than one-third of its length. A gallery ran
around it; an apsis, or recess, either square or circular,
terminated its further extremity ; and it was usually
open to the sky, or only partially roofed. In the apse
was placed the judge's tribunal, separated by a railing
from the other portions of the building, which were de-
voted to the same purposes as our modern Exchange.
Sometimes, as in the Porhpeian Basilica, there was no
apse, and the magistrate's court was then cut off from
the nave. The upper gallery was thrown open to the

ITS CONSTRUCTION. 75

public; one-half to the men, one-half to the women. As
our Christian churches have been imitated from these
Basilicas, the reader who would gain a clear conception
of their arrangement has only to suppose a church un-
roofed, leaving the nave open, but the aisles covered,
and in the place of the altar or communion-table, to
substitute the judge's curule chair, and the seats of the
judices, or jurymen.

The Pompeian Basilica — the most perfect example of
the kind in existence — measures 220 feet in length by 80
feet in breadth. It is entered through a vestibule having
five doorways of masonry, in which grooves have been
cut for the insertion of wooden door-jambs. From the
vestibule a flight of four steps leads into the interior by
five entrances. The open central area is enclosed by a
covered gallery resting on a range of twenty-eight fluted
Ionic columns, of large size, and constructed of brick and
tufa, covered with stucco, forming below a colonnade or
aisle, where the merchants and lawyers might shelter
themselves from the weather.

The praetor's tribunal, situated at the further extremity
of the peristyle — for in the Basilica at Pompeii there was
no apse — is a platform, six or seven feet high, ascended
by wooden steps; it is decorated with small columns,
between which, at the back, small apertures may be seen,
and at the sides closets, probably for the magisterial
robes.* Temporary cells for the accused were placed
underneath ; and through two orifices in the floor orders
were transmitted to those who had them in charge. A
bronze statue stood on a pedestal in front of the

* "Fompeii" (Library of Entertaining Knowledge), i. 137.

76 // HAND-WRITING ON THE WALL.

tribunal ; on each side of which were two enclosed apart-
ments, designed, we may suppose, for the accommoda-
tion of the suitors and their advocates, the lictors, officers,
and attendants of the court. The interior walls were
painted in various colours to imitate marble. That
loiterers might be found in the Pompeian public places,
as in those of London and Paris, is attested by the
numerous inscriptions rudely scratched upon these walls ;
inscriptions which show that a very low state of moral
feeling prevailed among the citizens. One, however, of
simple character, is valuable in connection with the sup-
posed age of the Basilica. It runs, —

C . PVMIDIVS DIPILVS HEIC FVIT A D V NONAS OCTOBREIS
M . LEPID Q CATVL COS.

It matters little to the world at large that Pumidius
Dipilus was in the Pompeian Basilica on the 3rd of
October, but the circumstance of his recording the date
— in the year that Lepidus and Catulus held the consul-
ship, or 79 B.C. — proves that the building was erected
eighty or ninety years, at all events, before the Christian
era. * The name of this 'idler has thus been preserved
nearly two thousand years.

At the south-west corner of the Forum, beyond the
Basilica, are two houses which, having been excavated
during the rule of the French general Championnet at
Naples, are known as the Houses of Championnet. I
shall refer to them in a later section of this volume.

Proceeding along the southern side, opposite the
Temple of Jupiter, we come to three halls of nearly

* Ovcrbeck, "Pompeji," i. 134.

TffE TREASUR Y AND MA GISTERIAL COUR TS. 77

equal dimensions, which, in the absence of all inscrip-
tions to afford a clue to their destination, have been
termed

THE CURI/E, AND jERARIUM.

The central one, which has a square recess, and the re-
mains of a raised basement at the end, is called the
^Erarium, or Treasury, because some two or three
hundred coins were found in it. The side buildings,
which have apsides, or circular recesses, are supposed to
have been the Curia, or courts where cases of minor
importance were decided by the municipal magistrates.
They appear to have been richly embellished with
marbles, frescoes, and statues.

Proceeding along the eastern side of the Forum, we
pass a corner building, whose uses are wholly unknown.
It is generally called, but on no good foundation, the
Public School of Verna, from an inscription of a certain
Verna soliciting the protection of Ccelius Capella, the
Decemvir of Justice.

Next to it stands

THE CHALCIDICUM,

or Crypto-Porticus of Eumachia, a large and imposing
structure, in the form of a basilica, 130 feet long, and 65
feet broad, which is supposed to have been the Cloth
Exchange of Pompeii.* It has two entrances, one from

The youthful reader, amazed at the uncouth words, will inquire their mean-
ing. A crypto-portico ^from (tpvTrros, hidden) is a gallery, in which the columns
in the interior are replaced by walls, merely pierced for windows. A cJialcidicuin
(from the Eubcean city, Chalcis) is an apartment separated by a partition from
the body of a basilica, or other large building. It may also be taken to signify
any large portico, but antiquaries still differ upon the exact meaning of the term.

78 THE CHALCIDICUM.

the Forum, and the other from the Strada dell' Abondanza.
The former was graced with a handsome portico of
eighteen columns, which was surrounded by raised plat-
forms, for the convenience probably of haranguing an
audience sheltered from the weather, or for the proclama-
tion of edicts and decrees relative to commercial matters.*

The entrance to the central area is through a passage,
on each side of which are other passages, with a staircase
on the right leading to upper galleries. The Chalcidicum
is approached from the Strada dell' Argentarii (Street of
the Silversmiths), forming the southern boundary of the
building. Here is a small chamber for the custos, or
porter, through which may be seen a flight of steps as-
cending to the floor of the Chalcidicum and Crypto-
portico; the wall on either side is painted in black panels,
divided by red pilasters. Under the staircase are the
remains of a thermopolium, whose characteristics I have
already described.

The building, as a whole, consisted of a hypathrum,
or open court ; a portico of forty-eight marble columns ;
a chalcidicum, or enclosed apartment, at the further ex-
tremity; a semicircular recess at the end, containing a
statue of Concord; and a crypto-porticus. The latter
ran round three sides of the building — north, south, east —
lighted by windows placed at regular intervals; above it
were wooden galleries ; and above these an upper cornice,
which projected so far over the area as to shelter the
little tables, built of lava and covered with marble, on
which the fullers and cloth-merchants exhibited their
goods. The walls are divided into large panels, painted

* Sir William Cell, " Pompeiana," i. 13, et seq.

STATUE OF EUMACHIA. 79

alternately red and yellow, and bordered at the bottom
with a gay floral design; their centre is occupied by a
small figure or landscape. One of the latter is described
by Sir William Cell as " presenting a pretty and pictur-
esque group of buildings, and serving to give an idea of
the beautiful effects which must frequently have been
produced by the various combinations of shrines, columns,
and ornamental pediments in the cities of Greece and
Italy." The floral decorations include a flower not un-
like the lily in form, but of a vermilion colour. The
effect of the whole, when fresh and new, must have been
very attractive.

The chalcidicum is raised above the level of the area,
and was probably approached by steps of wood ; it is
divided into two parts by a semicircular apse or recess,
which may have served for a civil tribunal. Here, per-
haps, were kept the goods not disposed of during the
day.

Behind the recess, in a niche panelled in green and
red, stands the statue of Eumachia, the public priestess,
and foundress of the building. It is executed in white
marble; is nearly 5 feet 4 inches high; and stands on a
pedestal about three feet from the pavement, which bears
the following inscription : —

. L . F
SACERD . PVBL.
FVLLONES.

from which it appears that the fullers erected it to the
memory of their great benefactor.

Over the side-entrance from the Strada dell' Abondanza,

8o OLD INSCRIPTIONS.

may be read another inscription, explanatory of the
erection of the building. It runs thus, —

EVMACHIA . L . F . SACERD . PVBLIC . NOMINE . SVO . ET
M . NVM1STRI . FRONTONIS . FELI . CHALCIDICVM .
CRYPTAM . PORTICVM . CONCORDL* . AVGVST^E .
PIETATE . SVA PEQVNIA . FECIT . EADEMQVE
DED1CAVIT.

[Eumachia, the public priestess, daughter of Lucius, in her own name and that
of her son, M. Numistrus Fronto, erected this Chalcidicum and Cryptc-
Porticus at her own expense, and dedicated the same to Concord and
Piety.]

This inscription was repeated on blocks of marble,
which formed the architrave of the front of the building.

It has been conjectured that the chalcidicum suffered
severely in the earthquake of A.D. 63 ; and it seems to
have been undergoing repair at the time of the great
eruption.

On the outer wall towards the street are two inscrip-
tions. The first notifies a gladiatorial show, —

A . SVETTI CERII

JEDILIS . FAMILIA . GLADIATORIA . PVGNABIT

POMPEIS . R . K . JVNIAS . VENATIO . ET . VELA .

ERVNT.

[The gladiatorial troupe of Suettius Curius, the acdile, will fight at Pompeii
on the last day of May. There will be a chase of wild beasts (venatio' ,
and awnings (vela.) to protect spectators from the sun.]

The second proves the opulence of the city,—

C . CVSPIVM PANSAM . /ED .

AVRIFICE^ . VNIVERSI

ROG.

[AH the goldsmiths solicit the protection of Caius Crispius Pansa the xdtlc).

TEMPLE OF QUIRINUS. 81

The fullers were an important guild among the an-
cient Romans. Wool was then the principal material of
dress, and, in so warm a climate as that of Italy, must
have needed frequent purification. The fuller and the
cloth manufacturer, therefore, played an important rd/e,
and we need not wonder that a building of such dimen-
sions was appropriated to their accommodation.

But I now pass on to the so-called

TEMPLE OF QUIRINUS,

formerly known as that of Mercury. There is reason to
believe, however, that if its former • appellation was erro-
neous, its present is not correct. It was suggested by
an inscription on a basis which stands in front of it, and
which commemorates the achievements of Romulus, and
his deification under the name of Quirinus. But it
should be remembered that the said basis was not found
within the temple precincts, but parallel with the colon-
nade of the forum ; while a precisely similar pedestal,
inscribed to the glory of ^Eneas, stood on the other side,
exactly opposite to it. Hence it is evident that they
anciently supported statues of the two divine founders of
the Roman people.

A temple, however, the building before us is, most
undoubtedly ; though we know not to what deity it may
have been consecrated. It occupies a roughly quadran-
gular area, 57^ feet by 50^ feet ; at whose further extre-
mity, elevated on a podium, or basement, stands a
sacellum, or sanctuary. On each side of the basement,
steps lead up to the platform of the cella. In front of it,
and just in the centre of the court, stands a white marble

82 // BAS-RELIEF.

altar, bearing an unfinished bas-relief, which has absurdly
been supposed to represent Cicero sacrificing, — from a
fancied resemblance in the principal figure to the great
orator whose eloquence moved the passions of republi-
can Rome. But if no dispassionate observer can recog-
nize Cicero, the bas-relief is nevertheless of high interest
in its details. You see the victim — an ox — led forward by
the popa, or person whose office was to slay it. He
bears in his hand the sacrificial axe (malleus), and is
stripped naked to his waist. At the altar stands the
chief priest, or perhaps magistrate, his brow bound
with a triumphal wreath, and his robes partly drawn
over his head. In his hand he holds a patera, with
which to lustrate and sprinkle the victim. Behind him,
carrying a vase and another patera, stands a youthful
acolyte, with the sacred vitta, or fillet, hanging from his
neck. Near him is a figure also holding a patera, which,
apparently, is heaped with cakes. A musician lustily
sounds a tibia or double flute, and in the rear gather
the lictors with their fasces. The temple is represented
in the background, adorned with garlands and fes-
toons.

On the opposite side of the altar, young olive-trees are
sculptured, and between them a crown of oak leaves,
bound with the sacred vitta; on the other two sides, you
may trace the various implements and ornaments of
sacrifice, as the vase, the patera, the vitta, the censor,
garlands, a ladle, and a spiral instrument, which mayhap
belonged to the haruspeXj^who examined the entrails of
the victims, and from their appearance divined the future.
In fine, this altar of white marble is a curious illustration

// DEAD CREED. 83

of the religious rites of antiquity, and may remind us of
one which Paul beheld at Athens, dedicated to an un-
known god.

The sacellum is built of stone, and decorated exter-
nally with pilasters ; it measures but 15 \ feet by 13 feet
8 inches, and was only just large enough to serve as a
shrine for the statue of its presiding deity, whose pedestal
is still extant. In the apartments designed for the priests
numerous amphora, or wine-jars, have been discovered.
These and other relics are still preserved in the temple,
which has been converted into a species of temporary
museum. The sounds of music no longer float through
its pillared aisles; the victim no longer bleeds on its
altar ; the crowds of excited worshippers have ceased to
bend before the marble image of their fabulous divinity ;
the old creed has died out, the old worship passed away;
and the gods of Rome and Hellas are but as vain
shadows, which the brush of the artist and the pen of the
poet seek at times to recall to a transient life. They
have fallen before the eternal spirit of Infinite Good.

" The powers of earth and air
Fled from the folding star of Bethlehem :
Apollo, Pan, and Love,
And even Olympian Jove,
Grew weak, for killing truth had glared on them."

The third important building on the eastern side of
the Forum is generally supposed to be

THE SENACULUM,

or Senate-House ; but it has also been called the Decti-
rionate, the meeting-place of the Town-Council, or, in

8.» THE SENACULU.M.

English phrase, the Guildhall. For such a purpose it
seems specially adapted by its large dimensions, its
spacious area measuring 83 feet by 60. It is semicir-
cular in plan. Externally it is embellished with a por-
tico of fluted white marble columns of the Ionic order.
Internally, a niche for a statue occurs on each side of
the entrance, and at the end a recess with a seat for the
worshipful magistrates. An altar stands in the centre of
the area, where, on important occasions, sacrifices were
offered previous to the commencement of public busi-
ness. It is a moot question whether the building was
open to the sky, or roofed, with glass casements in the
roof to admit light. Certainly, if covered, it would not
be sufficiently illuminated by the rays which would
stream in through the portico. It is a mistake to sup-
pose that the ancients were not acquainted with glass
windows. A quantity of flat glass has been discovered
among the ruins at Pompeii ; and it has also been found
" ingeniously fitted " to those rare and minute openings,
or loopholes, which were used as windows in that city.

We have now arrived at the north-eastern angle of the
Forum, and at an edifice which has been variously
designated

THE PANTHEON,

the Temple of Augustus, and the House of the Au-
gustales.* Bonucci, an Italian archaeologist of consider-
able repute, considers a portion of it to have served as
the Temple of Augustus, anti the remainder as the scene
of the sacred banquet of its priests, the Augustales. Sir

• Overbeck, " Pompeji," lit antt; Sir W. Cell, " Pompeiana," i. 46-68.

THE AUGUSTALES. 85

William Cell observes that the only reason to doubt this
theory is " the difficulty of finding so large a piece of
ground, in the centre of a city already built, for the
erection of such a fabric, and for such a purpose, at so
late a period." But Vitruvius gives such a situation for
the Temple of Augustus. Fragments of an inscription,
too, have been found, which seem to settle the
question : —

. . . AMINI . AVGVSTALI . SODALI
AVGVSTALI . Q.

And though Overbeck, apparently on no other ground
than that the edifice is of a circular form, calls it the
Temple of Vesta, most authorities are now agreed in
accepting Bonucci's hypothesis.

The Augustales were highly honoured ; they were an
order founded by Augustus, and it was their privilege,
like that of a chosen body of knights, to lead the troops
in battle ; they also presided at the feasts called Au-
gustalia, held in memory of their founder. At Pompeii,
where they were six in number, they exercised a para-
mount influence. Their funds supplied them with the
means of giving splendid entertainments, — a source of
civic popularity in other days than those of the Roman
empire ! — and there can be no doubt that they and the
principal citizens of Pompeii often made the walls of the
so-called Pantheon resound with the noise of their
carousals. I can fancy that with the Pompeians it was
as much a matter of eager contention to obtain an invi-
tation to a ccena with the Augustales, as it is with a
certain class of Londoners now-a-days to partake of the
lurtle-soup of the Mansion-House ! Nunc pellite curas /

86 CULINARY PICTURES.

O Pompeians, let us drink and be merry, for what says
our Horace ?

" Sapias, vina liques, et spatio brevi
Spem longam reseces."

" Be wise ; pour forth the wine :
Within one narrow span thy wandering hopes confine."

It is, at all events, certain that feasting was the prin-
cipal motive for assembling in the Pompeian porticoes.
The street which runs along the north side of them from
the Temple of Jupiter has been called that of Dried Fruits,
from the quantity of raisins, figs, plums, chestnuts, pre-
served fruits in glass vases, lentils, hempseed, and similar
articles, found in the shops. Bread, scales, money, and
moulds for pastry, have also been among the " treasure-
trove ;" and a finely-wrought statuette of Fame, in
bronze, with golden armlets.

Many of the smaller paintings which adorned the walls
of the building are of a culinary character. At the
northern entrance, which has the name CELSVM en-
graved on a pilaster, and near which was found a box
containing a gold ring, 41 silver medals, and 1036 brass
coins, you may see. a group of Cupids making bread, or
driving the patient ass, crowned with a wreath — like Bot-
tom in the " Midsummer Night's Dream," after his meta-
morphosis— which brought the flour. On the opposite
side, their dexterous fingers are weaving garlands for the
guests. At the southern entrance a tableau is made up
of a meat-axe, boars' heads, hams, fish, and other viands.
In other places we find paintings of geese, turkeys, dishes
of eggs, fowls and game plucked ready for cooking, oxen,
sheep, glass salvers of fruit, a cornucopia, a variety of

THE PANTHEON. 87

amphorae for wine, and every other accessory of a ban-
quet. The Augustales must have shown considerable
taste in drawing up their bills of fare.

To this pictorial evidence may be added the testimony
of a drain or sink near the tholos or dodecagon in the
centre of the court, which was found obstructed with
fish-bones and other remains of food.

The Pantheon was a spacious edifice, consisting in-
ternally of an open atrium or court, 120 feet by 90 feet,
with entrances on three sides ; that from the Forum
being decorated with fluted Corinthian columns of white
marble, and pedestals for statues. The columns had
been overthrown by the earthquake, and were under re-
pair at the time of the eruption. In the atrium was
placed an altar, surrounded by twelve small pedestals.
It was originally supposed that these had borne statues of
the twelve Dii Conscnies or Magni — Jupiter, Juno, Min
erva, Vesta, Ceres, Neptune, Venus, Vulcan, Mars,
Mercury, Apollo, Diana ; and therefore the building was
named the Pantheon. It is more probable, as Over-
beck suggests,* that they supported some light wooden
structure — perhaps a canopy for the protection of the
officiating priests — which was destroyed in the fire that
consumed the city.

Behind the altar was a niche, in which may have been
placed the . image of a god, so that the devout Roman
had an opportunity of leaving his offering as he entered,
and of propitiating the presiding deity.

The grand entrance from the Forum opens out of the
portico north of the Senaculum, and has two doors, be-

* Overbeck, " Porapeji," ut ant).

88

KELICS OF ANCIENT AKT,

tween which stood a statue — probably of the Emperor-
under a pediment supported by two small Corinthian
columns of white marble, whose capitals are enriched
with foliage and the Roman eagles.

On the left of this entrance the wall, with its paintings,
has been excellently preserved ; and when it was fresh,
nothing could exceed the beauty of the colouring, or the

STATUES OF LIVIA AND DRUSUS, FOLND IN THE PANTHEON.

rich effect of the contrast between its many vivid tints
and the deep black of the panelled background. The
finest frescoes are those of Ulysses and Penelope, Theseus
and ^Ethra, and the muse Thalia.

In the first, reference is" made to the passage in the
igth book of the Odyssey, where Penelope inquires of
the supposed mendicant — who is Ulysses himself — for

CLASSIC SCENES. 89

tidings of the lost Ulysses. She is clothed in a violet-
coloured tunic and white veil, with materials for spinning
in her hand. Ulysses, who is seated, wears a white
tunic, and a yellow chlamys. Eurynome, the attendant,
is seen in the background. The expression and attitude
of the figures are admirable.

" Thus the famed hero, perfected in wiles,
With fair similitudes of truth beguiles
The queen's attentive ear : dissolved in woe,
From the bright eyes the tears unbounded flow.
As snows collected on the mountain freeze,
When milder regions breathe a vernal breeze,
The fleecy pile obeys the whispering gales,
Ends in a stream, and murmurs through the vales :
So, melted with the pleasing tale he told,
Down the fair cheek the copious torrent rolled :
She to her present lord laments him lost,
And views that object which she wants the most ! '' *

Of the next picture the subject seems to have been
taken from the story of Theseus, and to represent his
discovery of his father's sword by raising the enormous
rock under which it lay concealed. His mother ^Ethra
sits near, and seems explaining the circumstances to
Theseus, whose strength had thus been proved in ac-
cordance with the injunctions of his father ^Egeus. But
the picture has suffered greatly from exposure, and many
antiquarians contend that it really represents Mercury
restoring lo to liberty, after having slain her custodian
Argus with the sword which he holds in his hand.

Very beautiful in conception and execution is the
picture of Thalia, who, crowned with a golden tiara, is
represented seated ; zpedum or hooked stick in one hand,

* Homer, " The Odyssey," book xix., translation by Pope.

?o FIGURES IN COLOUR.

and a mask and wreath in the other. A drum or tym-
panum is placed by her side, and a graceful female, per-
haps a sister muse, leans upon the back of her chair.

Another striking design represents an architectural
composition set between two of the black panels already
described. Over a richly ornamented portico, seen
through a graceful arch, hangs a pergula or trellis-work
of vines. On the right stands a group of Doric columns.
Through the opening approaches the figure of the
paintress herself, carrying her palette. The little pedi-
ments of the shrines on each side are very elegant, and
beneath them are pictures of Roman galleys, brightly
painted. In a lower compartment, which forms a species
of base or substruction, is a female figure with a lyre. The
whole glows vividly with bright vermilion, emerald green,
deep crimson, golden yellow, and azure blue, while the
architecture in the background is tinted with the aerial
purple of distance. The general effect is very bright and
vivacious.

That this edifice, so radiantly enriched with design
and colour, was intended to accommodate a large num-
ber of guests, may be inferred from the very considerable
depth of the porticoes,* being 24 feet on the western
side. They must have been roofed with timber, and have
sloped inwards to the court, where the rain-water was
received in a large channel. It is possible that only the
southern, western, and northern sides had porticoes, and
that the eastern was left open towards the temple to
admit light.

On the south lies a range of eleven small chambers-

* Sir W. Gell, " Pompciara," L 57.

THE ROMANS A T DINNER. 91

each about 10 feet by 8 — which appear to have been
used, like the recesses in a modern restaurant, for the
separate repasts of private parties. They are all painted
in red panels.

Above them was a second story, as is evident from the
joists which supported the upper floor, and the painted
walls of the higher rooms. They would seem to have
been approached by an external staircase, and a long
narrow gallery. These upper chambers were probably
called Ccenacula, which, we know, were always placed in
the upper story of a Roman house. Here were low
circular tables of fir-wood or maple, or occasionally of
citron-wood, plated with silver, and supported on legs of
ivory. They were covered by draperies of wool or silk,
embroidered or striped with gold or purple ; and around
them were arranged the triclinia (Ires lecti, rpets /cAimi,
three couches) for the accommodation of the guests
who did not sit at table, but reclined. Three commonly
rested on each couch. They lay with the upper part of
the body resting on the left arm, the head a little raised,
the back supported by cushions, and the limbs either
slightly bent or stretched out at full length. The feet of
the first came behind the back of the second, and his
feet behind the back of the third. A cushion was placed
between each guest.

The cana or dinner of the Romans consisted of two
divisions, called Mensa prima, the first course — different
kinds of meat ; and Mensa secunda vel altera, the second
course — fruits and sweets. In later times the first part
was called Gnstatio or Gustus, and composed of such
dishes as might stimulate the appetite ; for example, oys-

92 THEIR BILL OF FAKE.

ters, eggs, asparagus, lettuce, onions, figs, and a mulsum of
wine mingled with water and sweetened with honey. Then
came a plentiful supply of fish — mullet, lamprey, sturgeon,
pike, and turbot ; and for meat, a peacock, a pheasant,
a kid, a guinea-hen, ducks, geese, nightingales, thrushes,
and perhaps a whole boar stuffed with the flesh of other
animals. To wash down this abundant banquet wines
were served up, either mixed with water or with spices, and
drunk either hot or cold.

Some idea of a Roman oena may be obtained from
the following passages in Juvenal : — *

" See ! by the tallest servant borne on high,
A sturgeon fills the largest dish and eye 1
With how much pomp he's placed upon the board !
With what a tail and breast salutes his lord
With what expense and art, how richly drest,
Garnished with 'sparagus, himself a feast ! . . . .

Behold a mullet even from Corfu brought,
Or near the rocks of Taurominium caught

The largest lamprey which their seas afford,
Is made a sacrifice to Virro's board

Near him is placed the liver of a goose,
That part alone which luxury would choose.
A boar entire, and worthy of the sword
Of Meleager, smokes upon the board.
Next mushrooms, larger when the clouds descend
In fruitful showers, and desired thunders rend
The vernal air

If the blood boil, and the adventitious fire
Raised by high meats, and higher wines, require
To temper and allay the burning heat,
Waters are brought, which by decoction get
New coolness, such plain nature does not know,
Not ice so cool, nor hyperborean snow."

The dishes of the second course, or dessert, were called
brllaria, and included apples, pears, nuts, figs, olives,

* Juvenal, " Satire" v., translated by Bowles (Dryden's edition of Juvenal).

THE ATRIUM. 93

grapes ; pistachia, or pistachio nuts ; caricce, or dried figs ;
uvce passes, dried grapes, or raisins ; dactyli, dates ; boleti,
mushrooms ; nuclei, or pine-nut kernels ; and sweetmeats
or confections, called edulia mellita, cupedice, crustula, liba,
placenta, coptce, almond-cakes, artologani or cheese-cakes,
and scriblitce, or cakes.

Such was the kind of entertainment to which the
Augustales would invite their fellow-citizens.

The open court, or atrium, is paved with pebbles im-
bedded in a species of hard cement. In the centre stood
a tholos or dodecagonal building, consisting of a roof
supported by twelve piers. It was paved with marble,
and from the situation and substance of the piers we
may conclude that the roof was framed of light timbers
meeting in an apex in the centre, and with projecting
eaves. At the north-eastern angle a projection from
the wall has been supposed by lively imaginations to be
an orchestra, a bar for distributing wines and liquors,
and a money-taker's office ! The truth is, that no one
has the slightest idea of its exact uses, and modern cus-
toms suggest a modern appropriation.

Beyond this, and forming the angle of the build-
ing, lies an apartment or enclosure about 35 feet long,
and nearly of the same breadth, decorated with many
frescoes now defaced. Here also is a sacellum, which has
had its statue and its altar, and is likewise embellished
with mural paintings, representing sea-horses and griffins,
dogs hunting stags, and a lioness chasing two bulls.

The centre of the eastern side was occupied by the
temple, while the other angle includes a chamber whose
uses it is difficult to understand, unless it was a refresh-

(190) 7

94 NOTHING NEW.

ment-room. A species of table runs round three sides
of it, at a distance of about 3 feet from the northern
and eastern, and 9 feet from the southern walls, leaving
an open area in the centre of about 30 feet. The table
or bench is about 3 feet wide. It inclines from the
walls outward, and a channel beneath is arranged to
catch whatever fell from its sloping surface.

I suppose this table was used by the Augustales or
their cooks when cutting up victims for the sacrifice, or
carving viands for the feast Or it may have supported
rows of bottles of those beverages, warm and iced, which
the Pompeians so largely delighted in ; and vases and
dishes of "honied sweets," lucent syrups, and dainty
cates. Snow, or rather ice, was much employed by the
Romans in cooling water, and the iced water they mixed
with their Falernian and Massic wines. And sometimes
they tempered the " indomitum Falernium " of Pusius,
or the Setinum, which Silius Italicus declares so choice
as to be reserved for the God of Wine himself —

" Ipsius mensis reposta Lyaei" —

by passing it through a strainer partly filled with snow.
Is there anything new under the sun — at least, in the
way of luxurious living ] The modern epicure, who ices
his wines, does but reproduce the practice of a Pompeian
gourmand. Ever flourishing seems that vain epicurean
philosophy, " Vivamus, dum licet esse bene."

I now come to the temple, which occupies the central
division on the eastern ^side of the edifice, and is ap-
proached by a flight of steps within its vestibule or
pronaos. On the wall of this same pronaos is painted a

VANITY OF VANITIES. 95

sitting figure, which some authorities represent to be
Augustus, but is rather a Bacchanal, with a thyrsus in
one hand, and a dish of fruits in the other. A statue of
the great Emperor probably stood on a pedestal without
the entrance, as a hand grasping a globe-was found near
the spot. Livia and Drusus was found, at the time of
the excavations, in the right and left niches. The walk
were probably painted.

Thus have we completed our survey of the misnamed
Pantheon, — of the halls and chambers which, two thou-
sand years ago, echoed with the sound of laughter and
merriment, and are now silent as the grave. Of all the
feasting and the revelry, what remains 1 Where be now
the jibes and jests, the toast to the reigning beauty, the
arrowy epigram, the subtle allusion ? Nowhere, perhaps,
so keenly as in Pompeii do we understand the full and
pregnant meaning of the Preacher's " Vanitas Vanitatum."
Not even at Nineveh or Heliopolis, among the marble
ruins of Tadmor, or the wondrous colossal effigies of El
Karnak, is the sad truth so powerfully obtruded upon us.
For there everything is desolate — everything tells of a
remote decay and spoliation — and we regard it with the
curiosity of the antiquarian, poring for a name, or a date,
or a chance light to be thrown upon the dark passages
of history ; but at Pompeii the banquet-hall and the bed-
chamber, the theatre and the forum, seem so near to us,
and so linked with ourselves in our tastes and feelings
and objects, that we start at their eloquent evidences of
mutability ! They cry aloud to us with a voice which we
cannot but choose to hearken. They flaunt in our faces
the constant testimony of our follies. Build, and strive,

96 ALL IS VANITY!

and labour, and destroy ; drink, and eat, and sleep ; but
upon all that you do, and all that you leave undone, we
supply the commentary. It is the same now as yester-
day— Vanitas Vanitatum /

Such, at least, is the lesson, ever trite and ever true,
which I read in the silence and the solitude of the Buried
City.

IV.

Cjr* temple of Jorixme.

" The old Scythians

Painted blind Fortune's powerful hands with wings,
To show her gifts come swift and suddenly,
Which, if her favourite be not swift to take,
He loses them for ever."

GEORGE CHAPMAN.

|HE next public building to which I propose
the reader should accompany me is situated
in the Street of Fortune — a continuation of
the Street of Mercuries — and is named the
Temple of Fortune. It may be considered, says no mean
authority,* one of the best examples of the Roman style
now extant, and is doubly interesting, as being the erec-
tion of the Tullian family, immortalized in the person of
Cicero.

Before describing it, I may inform my younger readers
that the places consecrated by the Romans to the worship
of their gods were called Templa, or temples. A small
temple or chapel, generally attached to some longer
building, was a sacellum or an cedicula. The place erected
for offering sacrifices was named ara or altare; the secret
chamber, to which none but the priests were admitted,

* Sir W. Gell, " Pompeiana," i. 69, et sey.

98

TEMPLE OF FORTUNE.

adytum. The body of the temple, answering to the
nave of a modern church, the Romans called the
cclla; it was approached through the pronaos, or vesti-
bule.

TEMPLE OF FORTUNE RESTORED.

The Temple of Fortune is placed cornerwise to the
street, with its portico turned a little towards the Forum,
and stands upon an elevated podium or basement, about

THE PORTICO AND CELLA. 99

eight feet high, built with good blocks of travertine. It had
two entrances of three steps each, separated by a pro-
jecting platform, which may have supported a statue,
or, more probably, the altar where blazed the incense
and sacrifices of the numerous votaries of the fickle
goddess —

" Fortune, the great commandress of the world."

The iron rails which prevented the entrance of the
profane are yet visible in front of this platform, and were
passed by two gates, each 5 palms 4 inches wide, placed
on the lower platform after an ascent of four steps. From
the platform, which extended the whole width of the
temple, you ascended by a flight of eight steps to the
portico, and its eight Corinthian columns of white marble.
The whole building was veneered, so to speak, both with-
out and within, with thin slabs of the same material.
The cornice and mouldings were richly carved with
floral and other devices.

From the portico, or pronaos, you entered the cella,
decorated externally with five pilasters on each side. It
measured about 33 feet 8 inches in length. At its ex-
tremity was a semicircular recess, containing a small
Corinthian sedicula or shrine, richly finished and de-
signed ; and within the aedicula stood of old a statue of
the goddess. The recess was 14 feet 2 inches wide ;
the shrine, 9 feet 4 inches.

On the marble architrave of the shrine may be seen
the following inscription :

M . TVLLIVS . M . F . D.V.I. D. TER . QVINQ . AVGVR . TV . MIL
A . POP . JEUEM . FORTVN^E . AVGVST . SOLO . ET . PEG . SVA.

loo A STA TUE OF CICERO.

That is : Marcus Tullius, the Duumvir, thrice elected
Augur by the people, erected this temple to Fortuna
Augusta on his own soil and at his own charge. It is
generally believed that he was a descendant of the great
orator who first made the Tullian family renowned. A
statue, of life-size, found in the interior of the building,
is described as having borne some resemblance to the
authentic busts of Cicero. He was represented clothed
in the toga praetexta, or official robe of the Roman magis-
trates ; and, which renders the statue of peculiar interest,
this robe was entirely painted of the costly imperial dye
— a deep purple violet. Hence it is believed that the
praetexta, instead of being a garment with only a purple
hem, was dyed throughout of this famous hue. Its cost
was enormous ; the violet, though the less precious kind,
was valued, according to Pliny, at 100 denarii, or ^3,
45. 7d. the pound; the red (r libra Tarentina) at 1000
denarii, or ten times that amount. It was obtained from
a shell-fish called the viurex. The species producing
the violet dye was found near Tarentum ; the red was
chiefly brought from the neighbourhood of Tyre. The
Roman "purple" has passed into our poetry to ex-
press any radiance of indescribable beauty, as Gray
speaks of

" The bloom of young desire and purple light of love."

Within the cella was also found a female statue, life-
size, clothed in a tunic falling to her feet, and a toga
over it. The face has boen sawn off; apparently from
economy, as if the Pompeians, desirous of compliment-
ing some distinguished personage, had thought the

THE STREET OF FORTUNE.

cheapest way to do so was by substituting her face for
that originally belonging to the statue.

In the area privata, on the south side of the temple,
vestiges may be discerned of
what seem to have been the
priests' offices. At the end
near the altar is a hole, which
probably served to facilitate
the mysteries of responses or
oracles. The ancient priests
must have been expert jug-
glers ; and it is certain they
were acquainted with many of
the acoustical and optical de-
ceptions which are the stock-
in-trade of the modern thau-
maturgist.

The street running from the
Temple to the Forum is now
called the Street of Fortune.
A rich harvest of discovery has
at various times been dis-
covered here. The curious
reader may consult the pages
of Overbeck for elaborate de-
tails of glass bottles, statues,
bronze statuettes, bronze lamps
and stands, vases, gold ear-
rings, basins, patera, bells,

lamps, coins, weights and scales, dishes of clay and
terra cotta, glazed plates, and other memorials of a re-

SPECIMEN OF MARBLES FOUND
AT POMPEII.

102 MEMORIALS OF THE PAST.

mote antiquity. They are not so much valuable in them-
selves, as of interest from the light which they throw upon
the manners and customs of a past age, and the com-
mentary they furnish on the writings of the Latin classics.
The skeleton was also found here of a Pompeian, who,
apparently for the sake of sixty coins, a small plate and
a saucepan of silver, had delayed in his house till the
street was already half filled with volcanic matter. He
would seem to have been in the act of escaping from
his window, when death suddenly cut short his career.

V.

" This the crowd surveys
Oft in the theatre, whose awnings broad,
Bedecked with crimson, yellow, or the tint
Of steel cerulean, from their fluted heights
Wave tremulous ; and o'er the scene beneath,
Each marble statue, and the rising rows
Of rank and beauty, fling their tint superb ;
While as the walls with ampler shade repel
The garish noon-beam, every object round
Laughs with a deeper dye, and wears profuse
A lovelier lustre, ravished from the day."

LUCRETIUS, iv. 73 (Translation by Mason Good].

iiHE Romans borrowed most of their amuse-
ments from the Greeks ; and that which they
did not borrow* — the ludi amphitheatrales,
the exhibition of combats of gladiators and
wild beasts — was marked by the innate cruelty and bar-
baric love of excitement peculiar to the Roman character.
The refined genius of the Greek shrank from the fierce
amusement to be obtained in watching the death-struggles
of the hired athletes. Dearer to him the contention in
the chariot race, or the wrestle, or the recitation of
melodious song. He loved whatever appealed to his

* It is said that gladiatorial combats were first introduced by the Etruscans :
but the shows of the amphitheatre were, nevertheless, characteristically Roman.

104 GLADIATORIAL SHOWS.

imagination, whatever cherished his passion for the ideal.
Such joys were tame to the ruder and harsher Roman :
his blood could only be fired by exhibitions of physical
prowess or physical suffering. So when the slave perished
in a lion's jaws, or the retiarius sank beneath the deadly
blows of the secutor, his eyes flashed and his heart
thrilled : he had no pity for the victim, while he bestowed
his loudest applause on the victor.

Gladiators were first exhibited at Rome in B.C. 264,
on the occasion of the funeral rites of the elder Brutus.
For some years they were confined to public funerals,
but afterwards they fought at most funerals of any
importance, and even at those of women. They were
also exhibited at entertainments and public festivals, to
please the people. The appetite grew by what it fed on,
and these cruel displays became in time a necessary
feature of every great popular show. Wealthy and
ambitious individuals vied with each other who should
exhibit the most imposing spectacles. The numbers
engaged in them were almost incredible. After Trajan's
victory over the Dacians, and his consequent triumph,
not less than ten thousand gladiators fought in the
Flavian amphitheatre.

The men who thus perilled life and limb " to make a
Roman's holiday" were either captives, slaves, condemned
criminals, or free-born citizens who fought for hire. Of
the criminals some were said to be condemned ad
gladium, which gave them a twelvemonth's respite ;
others ad ludum, and these might attain their discharge
at the expiration of three years. Freemen who volun-
tarily assumed the gladiator's sword were called auctorati.

CLASSES OF GLADIA TORS. 105

In the more licentious days of the empire even equites
and senators descended into the arena, and women
whom vice and luxury had unsexed ; but the latter prac-
tice was prohibited by Severus.

Schools (ludi) of gladiators were kept by persons
called laniste, who either let them out to persons desirous
of gaining popularity by a gladiatorial show, or trained
them — as horses are now-a-days trained — for some
wealthy citizen. The curriculum which they underwent
appears to have been as carefully considered as the
training of a modern prize-fighter.

There were various classes of gladiators, distinguished
by their arms, different mode of fighting, or other cir-
cumstances. Thus :

The andabatcz fought blindfold, their helmets having
no apertures for the eyes ; and consequently their various
manoeuvres, and blows delivered on the empty air, proved
highly amusing to the spectators.

The dimacheri were so called because they fought with
two swords.

The equites fought on horseback ; the essedarii from
chariots, like the Gauls and Britons.

The hoplomachi appeared in a full suit of armour.

The laqueatorcs were those who employed a noose or
lasso to entangle their opponents.

The mirwillones were so called, it is said, because
they bore on their helmets the figure of a fish (mormyr,
uopju.vpos) — in allusion, perhaps, to their nimbleness.
Their arms being like those of the Gauls, they were
frequently named Galli. They were generally pitted
against the retiarii, or Thracians.

106 THE VENATIO.

The retiarii, for their only weapon, carried a three-
pointed lance (tridens or fuscina) ; but they also bore a
net (rete), which they endeavoured to fling over their
antagonists, and then, while they were thus embarrassed,
they attacked them with the fuscina. But if they missed
their aim in throwing the net, they were liable, while
preparing for another cast, to be struck down by
the secutores or mirmillones, with whom they usually
fought

The secutores were probably so named because, in
their combats with the retiarii, they pursued the latter
when the throw of the net had failed.

The gladiatorial shows began with a kind of sham
battle — a pralusio, or prelude — fought with wooden
swords, or laths. Then the trumpet sounded, and the
bloody battle began. A venatio, or combat with wild
beasts, formed one of the earliest portions of the enter-
tainment. Either the wild beasts fought with one
another, or with men. The Romans had a passion
almost amounting to madness for these sanguinary
scenes, and thousands of animals were slain in one
sanguinary day. One of the earliest venationes was that
exhibited by Marcus Fulvius in B.C. 186, when lions and
panthers were let loose against each other. A hundred
lions were exhibited by Sulla in his praetorship, and
destroyed by skilful javelin men sent by King Bocchus
for the purpose. At a venatio celebrated by Pompey
in his second consulship, B.C. 55, six hundred lions
were slaughtered, and "eighteen or twenty elephants.
Bull-fights were introduced by Julius Caesar ; and Au-
gustus brought into the arena six-and-thirty croco-

AN IMPERIAL SHOW. 107

diles.* At the consecration of the great amphitheatre by
Titus, five thousand wild and four thousand tame animals
were slain — a slaughter which might have sickened the
greediest Roman of blood. But in the games celebrated
by Trajan after his Dacian wars, no less than eleven
thousand animals were butchered. " Under the empe-
rors," says a writer already quoted, " we read of a parti-
cular kind of venatio, in which the beasts were not killed
by bestiarii (gladiators so called, trained to contend with
wild beasts), but were given up to the people, who were
allowed to rush into the area of the circus and carry
away what they pleased. On such occasions a number
of large trees, which had been torn up by the roots, was
planted in the circus, which thus resembled a forest, and
none of the more savage animals were admitted into it.
A venatio of this kind was exhibited by the elder Gor-
dian in his sedileship, and a painting of the forest with
the animals in it is described by Julius Capitolinus. One
of the most extraordinary venationes of this kind was
that given by Probus, in which there were a thousand
ostriches, a thousand stags, a thousand boars, a thousand
deer, and numbers of wild goats, wild sheep, and other
animals of the same kind. The more savage animals
were slain by the bestiarii in the amphitheatre — a hundred
lions, and the same number of lionesses, a hundred Libyan
and a hundred Syrian leopards, and three hundred bears.
It is unnecessary to multiply examples, as the above are
sufficient to give an idea of the numbers and variety of
animals at these spectacles ; but the list of beasts which

* Dion Cassius, quoted in Dr. Smith's " Dictionary of Antiquities," article
Venatio.

io8 THE FIRST AMPHITHEA TRE.

were collected by the younger Gordian for his triumph,
and exhibited by his successor Philip at the secular
games, deserve mention on account of their variety and
the rarity of some of them. Among them we find men-
tion of thirty-two elephants, ten elks, ten tigers (which
seem to have been very seldom exhibited), sixty tame
lions, thirty tame leopards, ten hyaenas, an hippopo-
tamus and rhinoceros, ten archohontes (it is unknown
what they were), ten camelopards, twenty anagri (wild
asses, or perhaps zebras), forty wild horses, and' an
immense number of similar animals."

These exhibitions originally took place in the forum
and the circus ; the gladiatorial displays in the former,
and the shows of wild beasts in the latter. But as neither
was well adapted for such purposes, a new form of build-
ing became requisite, in which a multitude of spectators
should be so accommodated that all might obtain a good
view of the area occupied by the combatants ; while the
area required to be of quite a distinct shape to the circus,
inasmuch as the combatants were to be confined as much
as possible in the same place. Accordingly the amphi-
theatre was designed, the idea being suggested by the
existing theatre. In fact, the first amphitheatre — that of
C. Scribonius Curio — was simply a double theatre (d/x<£t
and Oearpov), or two movable theatres, which could be
placed face to face, or back to back, according to the
species of entertainment to be celebrated. The next
amphitheatre, and apparently the first to which the name
was applied, was built by Julius Caesar in B.C. 46, and
built of wood. The first permanent amphitheatre, partly
of stone and partly of wood, was erected by Statilius

7777i ROMAN COLISEUM. 109

Taurus, at the instigation of Augustus, who well under-
stood the political value of public shows and festivals as
a means of amusing the people. This was burned down
in the reign of Nero, and, though restored, did not
satisfy the magnificent ideas of Vespasian, who com-
menced the gigantic pile, completed by Titus, which,
under the name of the Coliseum, has obtained a world-
wide celebrity, and whose mighty ruins still command
the admiration of the stranger.

" The gladiators' bloody circus stands,
A noble wreck in ruinous perfection ;
While Caesar's chambers and the Augustan halls
Grovel on earth in indistinct decay."

Externally the amphitheatre generally consisted of an
oval wall, composed of two or more stories of arcades,
supported by piers of different architectural orders,
adorned with pilasters or attached pillars. Within, an
equal number of tiers of galleries (maeniana) gave access
to the spectators at different elevations. But a better
idea of this interior may be obtained from Gibbon's
matchless description of the Roman Coliseum than from
any elaborate architectural statement.

" The slopes," he says,* " of the vast concave which
formed the inside were filled and surrounded with sixty
or eighty rows of marble seats, covered with cushions,
and capable of receiving with ease about 80,000 spec-
tators. Sixty-four vomitories (for by that name the doors
were very aptly distinguished) poured forth the immense
multitude ; and the entrances, passages, and staircases
were contrived with such exquisite skill that each person,

* Gibbon, " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."
(190) 8

no ITS CONSTRUCTION AND DECORATION.

whether of the senatorial, the equestrian, or the plebeian
order, arrived at his destined place without trouble or
confusion. Nothing was omitted which, in any respect,
could be subservient to the convenience and pleasure of
the spectators. They were protected from the sun and
rain by an ample canopy, occasionally drawn over their
heads. The air was continually refreshed by the playing
of fountains, and profusely impregnated by the grateful
scent of aromatics.* In the centre of the edifice the
arena or stage was strewed with the finest sand, and suc-
cessively assumed the most different forms. At one
moment it seemed to rise out of the earth, like the
garden of the Hesperides, and was afterwards broken
into the rocks and caverns of Thrace. The subterraneous
pipes conveyed an inexhaustible supply of water ; and
what had just before appeared a level plain, might be
suddenly converted into a wide lake, covered with armed
vessels, and replenished with the monsters of the deep.
In the decoration of these scenes the Roman emperors
displayed their wealth and liberality ; and we read on
various occasions that the whole furniture of the amphi-
theatre consisted either of silver, or of gold, or of amber.
The poet who describes the games of Carinus, in the
character of a shepherd attracted to the capital by the

* To this Lucan alludes in the following passage : —

" . . As when mighty Rome's spectators meet
In the full theatre's capacious seat,
At once, by secret pipes and channels fed,
Rich tinctures gush from every antique head ;
At once ten thousand saffron currents flow,
And rain their odours on the crowd below."

Pharsalia, book ix.

INTERNAL ARRANGEMENTS. ill

fame of their magnificence, affirms that the nets designed
as a defence against the wild beasts were of gold wire,
that the porticoes were gilded, and that the belt or circle
which divided the several ranks of spectators from each
other was studded with a beautiful mosaic of precious
stones."

For the greater security of the spectators, trenches,
called euripi, surrounded the arena. These were first
dug by Caesar as a protection against the elephants which
he exhibited, that animal being supposed to be particu-
larly afraid of water.

In the centre of the arena stood an altar, dedicated
sometimes to Diana or Pluto, but more commonly to
Jupiter Latiaris, the patron-god of Latium, in whose
honour human sacrifices were offered. From certain
passages in ancient writers it has been inferred, but on
no satisfactory evidence, that the games of the amphi-
theatre were usually inaugurated by the sacrifice of a
bestiarius to this sanguinary deity. Dens were constructed
beneath the arena for the reception of wild beasts ; and
conduits provided for its inundation when it was required
to be transformed into a lake, where naumachia or sham
sea-fights might be exhibited.

With respect to the spectators, the same order of pre-
cedence was observed as at the theatre ; their appropriate
place being reserved for senators, equites, and plebeians.
It was not a question, as with us, of money, but of rank.
The podium was set apart for the senators ; this was a
broad cushioned platform which ran immediately round
the arena. A covered or canopied seat was here given up
to the emperor, or his representative ; and it is supposed

112 LAWS OF THE SHOW.

that in this part of the building were also places of
honour for the exhibitor of the games and the Vestal
Virgins. The equites sat in fourteen rows behind the
senators, and with them the civil and military tribunes.
Behind were the popularia, or seats of the plebeians,
divided by passages (scales) into wedge-shaped compart-
ments called cunei. The general superintendence of the
amphitheatre was intrusted to an officer named villicus
amphitheatri, and the distribution of the people in their
proper seats to locarii.

A week or so before the day appointed for a gladia-
torial show, he who gave it (the editor} caused bills or
pictorial representations to be affixed to the public walls,
containing the names and badges of the combatants, and
stating how many would fight, and for how long a period.
When the day came, the gladiators marched in pro-
cession to the amphitheatre. When a gladiator was
wounded, the excited populace would shout, " Habet !"
(He has it.) He then lowered his arms in token of sub-
mission, but his fate rested with the spectators, and not
with his antagonist If he had fought gallantly, they
would press down their thumbs, and his life was saved ;
if they were dissatisfied, they turned up their thumbs
(pollicem vertebant), and he was doomed to the sword.

" Influenced by the rabble's bloody will,
With thumbs bent back, they popularly kilL" *

The unfortunate victim sometimes submitted to his
fate with so calm an intrepidity that the people would
relent at the last momenCand grant him his life. But
this was only when their blood had not been heated by

* Juvenal, " Satires," iii. 36.

THE RUDIARIUS. 113

a series of exciting combats. Timidity, and want of
courage, were of such rare occurrence, that Cicero pro-
poses the high principle of honour which inspired the
common gladiator as an admirable model of heroic con-
stancy to animate himself and his friends in enduring all
things on behalf of the commonwealth.

The bodies of the slain were dragged by a hook —
unco trahebantur — through a gate appropriately named
Libitencnsis, the Gate of Death, to a den called the Spo-
liarium. The victors were rewarded with a sum of money,
a palm-branch, and a crown of palm gaily ornamented
with coloured ribbons. To those who had served three
years a wooden sword, rudis, was presented, as a sign
that he was released from the arena ; and occasionally a
gladiator who displayed remarkable courage or skill
was enfranchised on the spot He was then called
ntdiarius, and offered up his arms in the Temple of
Hercules.*

Certain bas-reliefs discovered upon a tomb at Pompeii
exhibit, in a very striking manner, the two main divisions
of the gladiatorial spectacles — the venationes, and the
combats between man and man.

This tomb is situated in the Street of Tombs, without
the Gate of Herculaneum, and consists of a square cham-
ber, serving as a basement, surmounted by three steps,
upon which, and upon the uppermost part of the base-
ment, are placed the bas-reliefs. The whole is sur-

* Horace, " Epistles," i. i. — If a person was free before he entered the Indus,
he became on his discharge free again ; or if he had been a slave, he returned to
slavery. A man who had been a gladiator was considered permanently dis-
graced, and even if he acquired wealth could not obtain the equestrian rank.—
Dictionary of Antiqttities, art. " Gladiatores."

H4 THE BESTIARIUS.

mounted by a square cippus, or funereal pillar, bearing
the following inscription : —

PATRICIO . A. F. MEN

SCAVRO
<-w
II VIR. I. D.

. . . ECVRIONES . LOCVM . MONVM .
00 iX> 00 IN FVNERE ET. STATVAM EQVESTTR.
. . . ORO . PONENDAM . CENSVERVNT .
SCAVRVS . PATER . FILIO .

[To Patricius Scaurus, son of Aulus, of the tribe Menenia, Duumvir of
Justice, by command of the decurions. The decurions decreed the site
of the monument, three thousand sesterces for funeral expenses, and an
equestrian statue in the Forum. Scaurus the father to his son.]

From the nature of the bas-relief one would suppose
that this Patricius Scaurus had been renowned for his
gladiatorial spectacles. . In one of them is given a repre-
sentation of the venatio; a man naked and unarmed be-
tween a lion and a panther, which dart away from him in
different directions. In the second, a wild boar seems
dashing furiously against another naked and defenceless
combatant, who in a half-recumbent posture seems pre-
pared to spring at his enemy. The archaeologist Mazois
supposes that these figures belonged to a class of
bestiarii who, trusting solely in their active limbs and
ready minds, entered the arena merely to provoke the
wild beasts after they had been let loose. In continua-
tion of the same relief, we see a wolf at full speed, gnaw-
ing a javelin which is buried deeply in his chest ; and a
stag, with a rope attached to his horns, pulled down by a
couple of dogs.

In the next group we may trace some steps of the
training by which the bestiarius was fitted for his dan-

SOME CURIOUS BAS-RELIEFS. 115

gerous profession. A youth, his legs and thighs protected
by cuisses, and with a javelin in each hand, attacks a
panther, whose movements, however, are fettered by a
rope fastened round its neck, and at the other end to a
broad band passing round the body of a bull. This
arrangement affords the tyro some slight protection, and
yet demands his utmost wariness and agility, as the beast
is still at liberty to pursue him from point to point.
Behind the bull is another figure — that perhaps of the
lanista or trainer, who goads the bull forward with a lance.

We see in another bas-relief a man contending with a
bear, exactly after the fashion of the matador in the Span-
ish bull-fights. In one hand he carries a short sword,
in the other a veil with which to baffle his adversary.
As this mode of equipment was not introduced into the
Roman arena until the reign of Claudius, we may infer
from it the date at which the tomb was erected. Claudius
became emperor in A.D. 41. In A.D. 59 theatrical exhi-
bitions were prohibited at Pompeii for ten years. In
A.D. 63 occurred the earthquake by which the monument
was evidently injured. It was therefore raised between
A.D. 42 and A.D. 59.*

The upper range of sculptures is devoted to gladiatorial
combats. The names of the combatants are given, the
number of their victories, and the name of their lanista
or owner, one Ampliatus. On this substruction of fact
Lord Lytton, in his " Last Days of Pompeii," has raised
an agreeable edifice of fiction, and by introducing the
actual characters immortalized on these bas-reliefs, has
given to his romance a particular air of vraisemblance.-

* Overbeck, " Pompeji," i. 179.

Ii6 NOB I LI OR AND BEBRIX.

There are eight pairs of gladiators. The first pair, on the
left, represents an equestrian combat between Bebrix,
evidently from his name a foreigner, and Nobilior. Re-
sembling much the knights of the feudal days, they bear
lances and round shields (parma), beautifully inlaid;
their armour is dexterously woven with bands of iron,
but covers only the thighs and' the right arms ; short
cloaks (inducula), extending to the seat, enhance the
picturesque character of their costume; their legs are
naked with the exception of sandals fastened a little above
the ankles ; and on their heads they carry iron helmets,
with vizors which protected the whole face. Mounted on
light and nimble steeds, we may fancy them curvetting
and caracoling round the arena amid the applauding
shouts of twenty thousand spectators. And now, at a
given signal, they rush impetuously at one another, each
advancing his round buckler, each brandishing on high
his light but sturdy lance. When within a few paces of
his opponent, Bebrix suddenly checks his steed in full
career, wheels round, and as Nobilior sweeps by, spurs
full upon him. The shield of Nobilior, skilfully and
promptly put forward, receives the spear which would
otherwise have drained his life-blood. Bebrix in his turn
assumes the defensive ; but, we may fancy, too late ; No-
bilior's lance seems quivering at his helmet; he raises
his buckler to protect himself; but Nobilior suddenly
lowering his weapon, hurls him from his horse — dead !

The group next in succession depicts two gladiators
whose names are defaced. "The first wears a richly orna-
mented helmet, with a vizor, carries the long buckler
(scutum), and, we may presume, a sword ; but the sculp-

A VELES AND A SAMNITE.

117

tor has either forgotten to represent it, or intended it to
be of metal. Like all the other gladiators, he wears the
subligaculum, a short apron of red or white stuff fastened
above the hips by a girdle of bronze or embroidered
leather. The right leg is cased in a coloured leather bus-
kin, the left in an ocrea or greave not reaching to the knee.
His antagonist is armed with a helmet ornamented with
wings, a smaller buckler, thigh-pieces formed of plates of

COMBAT BETWEEN A VELES AND A SAMNITE.

iron, and on each leg the high greave which the Greeks
called Kn7/nis. These figures appear to represent one of
the light-armed class called Veles, and a Samnite (Samnis),
so named because armed after the old Samnite fashion.*
The former, who has been sixteen times a conqueror in
former games, is now himself conquered, —

" The desolator desolate,
The victor overthrown."

* "Pompeii" (Library of Entertaining Knowledge), i. 308.

Ii8 A THRACIAN AND A MIRMILLO.

Wounded in the breast, he has let fall his buckler in token
of defeat, and at the same time he solicits the pity of the
spectators in the usual manner, by raising his finger
towards them. Behind him the Samnite awaits the deci-
sion of the public, whether he shall spare his vanquished
foe, or put him to death.

The third couple represents a Thrax, or Thracian — so
called from the fashion of his armour — and a Mirmillo,
armed in the Gallic style. The latter, fifteen times a
conqueror, now acknowledges a better than himself in

COMBAT BETWEEN A THRACIAN AND A MIRMILLO.

his opponent, who rejoices in his thirty-fifth victory. The
letters M and 6 over the Thracian's head stand for Afors
and Oavvv, indicating that he was killed, according to the
cruel law of the arena. *

In the next group there are four figures ; two sccutores,
and two retiarii. Nepimus, one of the latter, five times
victorious, has contended^ with a secutor — his name is
lost, but Lord Lytton calls him Eumolpus — who has
prevailed in six different combats. It is now his turn to

* Over beck, " Pompcji," i. 176.

THE GLADIA TORS DEA TH. 119

be defeated. Bleeding from the left arm, the leg, and
the thigh, he has in vain implored the mercy of the
spectators. The thumbs have been turned backwards.
" And now, as the spear of the retiarius is not a weapon
to inflict instant and certain death, there stalks into the
arena a grim and fatal form, brandishing a short, sharp
sword, and with features utterly concealed beneath its
vizor. With slow and measured steps, this dismal
headsman approaches the kneeling gladiator — lays the
left hand on his humbled crest — draws the edge of the
blade across his neck — turns round to the assembly, lest
in the last moment remorse should come upon them;
the dread signal continues the same; the blade glitters
brightly in the air — falls — and the gladiator rolls upon
the sand; his limbs quiver — are still — he is a corpse."

In the bas-relief the figure may be seen in the distance
of the retiarius who is now to fight the victorious Nepimus,
while the latter is shown (apparently) as pushing (or
supporting?) his defeated and doomed rival.

This bas-relief terminates with an engagement between
a light-armed gladiator and a Samnite. The latter im-
plores the multitude to save him, but his appeal has
not moved their iron hearts. The conqueror, looking
towards the crowded amphitheatre, has seen the dread
signal, and prepares to strike.

Following up the frieze, we find it continued between
the pilasters of the door of the tomb. Here two com-
bats are portrayed: in the first a Samnite has been
vanquished by a Mirmillo, and the latter, in his blood-
thirst, would fain become his comrade's executioner,
even before the assembly to whom he has appealed pro-

120

FURTHER COMBATS.

nounces its decision. As the master of the show restrains
his arm, we may infer that mercy has been shown the
destined victim. *

COMBAT BETWEEN A LIGHT-ARMED GLADIATOR AND A SAMNITE.

In the other, a combat between a Samnite and a
Mirmillo, the latter falls stabbed to death. The wounds,

* His name is given as Caius Ampliatus, who appears to have been a contractor
for the supply of gladiators to the public shows.

A BULL- FIGHT. 121

the blood, and the inside of the bucklers are painted of
a vivid red.

In some lower bas-reliefs we find various animated
representations of the chase, and of combats between
men and animals. Hares flee from the hound; a
wounded stag, pursued by dogs, is about to become their
prey; a wild boar falls a victim to the bold attack of a
huge dog; and, in the centre of the composition, a
bestiarius has slain a boar with a stroke of his lance.
He wears a kind of short hunting-boot, and a light
sleeveless tunic, bound about the hips, and called in-
dusia, sabucula. His companion, similarly attired, has
wounded a bull, which takes to flight, carrying in his
chest the heavy spear with which he is transfixed. But
he turns his head angrily towards his assailant, as if he
would return to the assault; and the hunter stands
amazed and somewhat alarmed; for he sees himself at
the mercy of the animal whom he thought to have
mortally stricken.

The reader will consider such subjects as these far
from appropriate ornaments for the last resting-place of
mortality. * Let him remember that they embellished a
heathen's tomb. And for my part, I confess that I have
seen even more repulsive sculptures on the sepulchres of
many a Christian ! It is strange how much of the old
pagan spirit we still carry with us into the cemetery and
the grave-yard; how we cling to the pagan emblems;
how we picture Death itself with attributes derived not
from the bright promises of Holy Writ, but from the

* These have been nearly all destroyed since 1830, but have fortunately been
preserved by Mazois, Overbeck, and others, in engravings.

122 THE AM PHI THE A TRE A T POMPEII.

sombre meditations of the poets and moralists of
antiquity.

Having thus detailed at some length, but not, I trust,
to the reader's weariness, the arrangements and incidents
of the Roman gladiatorial spectacles, a very few words

ARMING FOR THE COMBAT.

will suffice me for a description of the Amphitheatre at
Pompeii.

The reader must not suppose it to have been an
edifice worthy of comparison with the mighty Coliseum.
It is smaller even than that of Capua, and more recent,
though older than the great Roman structure. It is
situated about 600 yards from the theatres, in the south-
east angle of the city- walls, between the Gate of the Sarno
and the Gate on the Nocera Road. Its form, as usual,
is elliptical. The major axis, including the walls, is 430
feet; the minor axis, 335 feet; or 190 and 178 feet re-
spectively, less than that of the Coliseum. The masonry
is the rough work called opus tncertum, with quoins of
squared stone; the marble slabs with which it was
formerly veneered were probably removed after the erup-
tion. A few of the key-stones remain ; on one a chariot
and two horses (biga) is sculptured, on another a head.

ITS INTERNAL ORDER. 123

At each end of the ellipse were entrances into the
arena for the combatants, who, mounted or on foot,
made their appearance to the ringing sound of the
trumpet, and in stately procession completed a circuit of
the building. The dead were dragged through the same
portals into the spoliarium. They were also the princi-
pal approaches to the lower ranges of seats, occupied
by the senators, magistrates, and equites, by means of
corridors to the right and left, which ran round the arena.
The ends of the passages were secured against the
accidental inrush of wild beasts by metal gratings. The
seats were elevated above the arena on a high podium, or
parapet, which, when the amphitheatre was originally
excavated, contained several inscriptions and paintings.
The former recorded the names of duumvirs who had
enlarged the building, or bestowed its site on the city,
or presided over the games. The latter represented a
battle between a bull and a bear, a stag pursued by a
lioness, and a tigress contending with a wild boar.
There were also fanciful designs of winged genii,
minstrels, musicians, the palm-crowned gladiators, and
candelabra; but on exposure to the atmosphere they
rapidly vanished.

The interior contained four-and-twenty rows of seats,
separated into different ranges, as already described ;
each range approached by a distinct entrance from two
different galleries, of which the larger one had forty
vomitories, communicating with the same number of
scala — or flights of stairs dividing the seats into cunei.
The arrangements for the egress and ingress of the
assembly were perfect, and 10,000 spectators entered or

124 THE VELARIUM, OR AWNING.

dispersed with infinitely less confusion than the audience
of a small London theatre. The arches of entrance were
numbered, and the admission tickets — specimens of
which are preserved in the Museum at Naples — bore
corresponding numbers, so that every person proceeded
to his proper seat without let or hindrance.

Outside the wall of the topmost gallery may be seen
the perforated stones which received the poles or masts
supporting the velarium, or awning. As this was of
vast extent, to raise it to its place was a work of
great labour and difficulty, and the means by which it
was accomplished have been largely discussed by anti-
quarians. Of all the explanations I have met with, the
following seems to my humble judgment the most pro-
bable : —

" The amphitheatre being oval, the velarium would of
course be of the same form. We conjecture that a large
oval ring of strong rope, about the size of the arena, was
first formed, and divided into a certain number of equal
parts by metal rings, corresponding in number and situa-
tion with the masts by which the awning was to be
supported. To these rings long stout ropes would be
attached, and rove through pulleys in the heads of the
masts, the ends being brought down to the ground, and
attached to windlasses. At a given signal this whole
framework would begin to ascend by the slow action of
the windlasses, and by a little dexterity the whole would
be drawn equally tight, and the strain thrown equally on
all the masts. The awning itself we imagine to have
consisted of a number of pieces, either permanently
attached to the framework of ropes, and drawn and un-

ANECDOTE OF COMMODUS. 125

drawn by an apparatus of smaller ropes and pulleys, or
sent aloft at pleasure by similar means." *

It is recorded among the tyrannical caprices of Caligula,
that on one occasion he ordered the velarium to be drawn
back, and compelled the spectators in the Roman amphi-
theatre to sit in the full outpouring radiance of an
Italian sun. The Emperor Commodus, who, vain of his
gladiatorial skill, frequently descended into the arena,

CURRICLE OR CHARIOT BAR FOR TWO HORSES.

Front a picture at Pompeii.

believed himself mocked by the crowd of servile Romans,
when, on one occasion, they saluted him with divine
honours, and ordered the sailors who were working the
vela to fall upon them sword in hand. It was with diffi-
culty that his favourites calmed his insane rage.

On the last day of Pompeii the amphitheatre was
crowded with admiring spectators, at the very time that
the sudden ruin fell upon the city. To this circumstance

* " Pompeii " (Library of Entertaining Knowledge), L 295.
(190) 9

126 THE LAST DA Y OF POMPEII.

may be attributed the escape of so large a number of the
inhabitants. When the hissing showers and hail of red-
hot stones began, they immediately took to flight, and
without attempting to regain their homes, poured through
the gates of Nocera and the Sarno into the country
beyond. Thus, in the midst of the revel and the
festival, closed the history of a city whose whole career
had been one of luxurious pleasure.

VI.

" This player here,

But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul to his own conceit,
That, from her working, all his visage wanned."

SHAKSPEARE.

HE quarter of the Theatres maybe approached
by two routes — by the Street of the Silver-
smiths on the eastern side, or by the street
opening out at the south-eastern angle of the
Forum. The space here excavated comprises two
theatres, the greater and smaller; the barracks, or
soldier's quarters ; the Temple of Isis ; the Temple of
Hercules ; and other minor edifices.

I shall devote this section to a description of the
theatres, but to render it intelligible to the reader, a few
prefatory remarks will be needed in reference to their
general arrangement. It does not come within my pro-
vince to explain the peculiarities of the Greek and
Roman drama ; but the reader will remember that the
actors did not exhibit their skill, as with us, by mobi-
lity of feature and variety of expression, but solely de-
pended on the excellence of their declamation and the
grace or appropriateness of their gestures. The audience,

128 THE ROMAN THEATRES.

therefore, so long as they could see and hear, did not
require, as modern audiences do, to see and hear very
distinctly. It was consequently possible for the ancients
to erect huge theatres, in which a modern actor's voice
would be lost, and from which no modern spectator
could hope to watch the play of countenance that so
eloquently illustrates the varying emotions. The Greek
and Roman actors wore masks of brass, or some equally
sonorous material, which gave the voice something of
the power of a speaking-trumpet, and carried its sounds
to an astonishing distance. It should also be remem-
bered that the ancients did not require any rapid changes
of scenery ; and the reader will then understand why a
Roman theatre differed very widely from an English
one — why, in fact, the latter can only resemble the
former in a few of its principal details.

The Roman theatre was a semicircular building,
divided into two parts — the cavea, or auditory, and that
appropriated to the business of the drama, which in-
cluded, therefore, the orchestra and stage.

The cavea was bounded by two concentric circular arcs,
one separating it from the orchestra and the other form-
ing its external limit. It was composed of a succession
of seats, as in an amphitheatre, rising tier above tier,
so as to afford an uninterrupted view, and divided
by numerous scales into compartments, or cunei, of
equal dimensions. A vomitory corresponded to each
scala. The lowest seats were appropriated to the magis-
trates and senators ; fourteen rows behind them to
the equites ; and the remainder, or popularia, to the
people. The foremost rows were called cavea prima, or

THE SCENA AND PROSCENIUM. 129

lina; the last, cavea ultima, or summa; the middle, cavea
media.

The dramatic portions of the theatre were called the
tcena, postscenium, proscenium, pulpitum, and orchestra.

(a.) The scena, or scene, at the back of the proscenium,
was richly adorned with gleaming statues, marble columns,
pictures, and costly hangings, according to the character
of the performance. Sometimes the decorations assumed
a more romantic character, as Virgil hints in a well-known
passage : —

" High o'er the cove vast rocks extend,
A beetling cliff at either enfl :
Beneath their summit far and wide
In sheltered silence sleeps the tide,
While quivering forests crown the scene,
A theatre of glancing green."

When the scene was suddenly changed by machinery, it
was called scena versatilis; when simply drawn aside,
scena ductilis.

The scenery was concealed by a curtain, which, con-
trary to our modern custom, was lowered when the play
began, and raised at its conclusion ; this was effected by
a machine called exostra.

(b.) The postscenium, the place behind the scenery, was
the actors' dressing-room.

(c.) The proscenium corresponded to the modern stage.
Here Medea declaimed her woes ; here Prometheus
braved the wrath of Zeus ; here Ajax harangued the warrior
Greeks. The deep passion of ^Eschylus, the tender
pathos of Euripides, the grace of Sophocles, the keen
flashing pregnant* wit of Aristophanes, or the coarser
humour of Plautus, and the vis comica of Terence, were

'3°

A DRAMA TIC MOSAIC.

here displayed before enchanted audiences. It was raised
only five feet above the orchestra, with a door in the
centre for the ingress and egress of kings and princes and
mighty chieftains, and side-doors for meaner characters.
The stage and postscenium were usually surrounded by
elegant porticoes and blooming gardens. These build-
ings, being under cover, were more suitable for rehearsals
than the open stage. A mosaic, discovered in a Pom-
peian house, exhibits the choragus, or stage-manager, in-

MOSAIC: REPRESENTING ACTORS INSTRUCTED BY THE CHORAGUS.

structing his actors in their parts. He is represented
sitting on a chair in the choragium, or "green-room,"
surrounded by the performers — the " great tragedian,"
the " walking gentleman," the " leading lady," and other
indispensable members of a well-regulated dramatic com-
pany. At his feet, on a stool, are the different masks
which were used, and whicrrwere as various in expression
as those in a modern pantomime ; another is behind him,
on a pedestal. One of the actors, assisted by a comrade,

THE PULPITUM AND ORCHESTRA. 131

is attiring himself in a thick shaggy tunic ; another has
lifted his mask while receiving the instructions of the
choragus. A female, crowned with a wreath, plays on
the double flute, or tibia. Two figures wear nothing but
goat-skins round their loins, as if the piece to be played
were some Arcadian spectacle. The background shows
the Ionic columns of the portico, decorated with fes-
toons, and a gallery above, enriched with vases and
statues. The whole is composed, like the modern
Roman mosaics, of minute pieces of glass, and deserves
commendation as a beautiful work of art

(d.) T\\z. pulpitum was a broad shallow platform, which
also formed a portion of what we should now-a-days call
the stage. It was the part nearest the orchestra, where
the actors stood when they spoke.

(e.) Lastly, the orchestra was a semicircular space be-
tween the pulpitum and the auditory, extending in front
of the spectators, and somewhat below the lowest tier of
seats. As its name indicates, it was the place, in the Greek
theatre, where the chorus danced (op^co/Aoi) and per-
formed their evolutions, for which purpose it was covered
with boards. But as the Roman drama had no chorus,
the orchestra in a Roman theatre was appropriated for
the seats of senators and other illustrious personages,
such as foreign ambassadors, which were called " primus
subselliorum ordo." *

I have already hinted that the rapid change of scenery
which finds favour with modern audiences was unknown
in Greek and Roman plays. Yet the piece was often

* Dr. Schmitz, in Smith's " Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities," art.
Thentnim.

132 SCENERY OF THE ANCIENT THEATRES.

"mounted" — to use a technical expression — with sur-
prising magnificence, and the art of the painter was called
in to supplement the art of the poet. No such mysterious
illusions of perspective, or marvels of colour and design,
or wonderful reproductions of actual landscape, or embo-
diments of fairy visions, as now astonish and delight
us, ever astonished or delighted a Greek audience,
but the spectacle set before them was often splendidly
conceived. It has justly been remarked that the
opening of the " (Edipus Tyrannus," with its crowd of
citizens kneeling in awe-struck apprehension before the
altar in the palace vestibule ; or that grand scene in the
" Prometheus," where the Titan, rock-bound in the
desolate region of the Caucasus, is consoled by the air-
borne daughters of Ocean ; or, I may add, the catas-
trophe of the " Medea," where the fate-driven murderess
is swept away from human sight in her fiery car; and the
grand contest in the "Ajax" for the armour of Achilles;
may probably have vied, for picturesque effect, with the
most successful achievements of modern machinists.

Those tragic flights, however, which so did take the
imagination of the quick-witted Athenians, found but
little favour with the Romans. The Eternal City could
give birth to a Cicero and a Caesar, but never rose to the
dignity of an ^Eschylus or a Sophocles. Her tragic writers
were but third-rate poets, and not a single Roman tragedy
was ever composed on a Roman subject. There was
more life, force, and originality in their comic dramas.
In their mimes and burlesques, indeed, they rivalled the
moderns. Their tumblers, their harlequins, their clowns,
achieved feats of agility worthy of a Blondin or a Leotard.

THE FIRST THEA TRES A T ROME.

133

They had their walkers upon stilts, their rope-dancers,
their Merry-Andrews; and, as a crowning proof of their
ingenuity in the " lower walks of the drama," let me re-
cord that they succeeded in teaching elephants to dance
on the tight-rope, with riders and litters on their back !

MASKS, DWARF, AND MONKEY (FROM POMPEIAN FRESCO).

The earliest theatres at Rome were built of wood, and
mere temporary buildings, removed when the occasion for
them was over. Stage-players were first introduced in
A.U.C. 391. The first exhibition of a dramatic performance
after the Greek manner was given by Mummius, the de-
stroyer of Corinth, about the year 610. The first per-
manent theatre was erected by Pompey in 699. Edifices
of immense extent and unrivalled magnificence were also
built by Scaurus and Curio, but these were of a temporary
character. The former, according to Pliny, contained
three hundred and threescore columns of marble, and
could accommodate eighty thousand persons. The
latter consisted of two theatres of timber, which were
first used separately for dramatic entertainments, and
then put together, face to face, as a circus for gladiatorial
shows.

Pompey's theatre was injured by fire in the reign of
Tiberius ; restored by Caligula ; again burned ; and re-

134 THE TRIANGULAR FORUM.

built by Claudius. A third time it was destroyed by fire,
and re-erected by Titus.

The Theatre of Marcellus, built by Augustus, would
contain thirty thousand persons. The splendour of its
decorations is commemorated by the classic writers. A
third theatre was raised by Cornelius Balbus, at the in-
stance of Augustus.

The Pompeian theatres could not compare with those
of Rome either in extent or magnificence, yet they would
be considered worthy ornaments of any modern capital.
The approach to them, when uninjured, must have com-
bined both convenience and beauty.

Just at the point where the two streets from the Forum
unite, stands a propylceum or vestibule, of eight Ionic
columns, raised upon two steps, with a fountain in front
of one of the columns, which poured its grateful waters
through a sculptured mask of stone. This vestibule
opens into an extensive Doric colonnade, retaining frag-
ments of the iron bars anciently inserted between the
pillars to confine the crowds within them. The colon-
nade is triangular in form ; the eastern side measuring
about 450 feet in length, the western nearly 300 feet.
On these two sides extended a portico of ninety columns;
the third side had no portico, but appears to have been
lined with small offices. At different points were situated
four entrances ; three to the Great Theatre, and one to
the barracks for the troops.

Within the ample area or piazza thus formed — some-
times called the Triangular Forum — moulder the ruins
of a sacred edifice, called, from its style of architecture,
the Greek Temple, otherwise the Temple of Hercules. It

TEMPLE OF HERCULES. 135

is the most ancient building yet discovered in the " City
of the Dead," and from its elevated position must have
formed a conspicuous landmark to all mariners navigat-
ing the Parthenopean waters. Some authorities date the
erection about eight hundred years before Christ. If this
be true, it must have been built by some of the earliest
colonists, who, migrating from Cumae, or the shores of
Hellas, planted themselves at the vine-clad base of
Vesuvius. At all events, it possesses in itself — in its
massive Doric columns, its deep and boldly projecting
abaci, and the general details of its construction —
abundant evidence of its remote antiquity.

The whole building seems to have stood upon a
podium or basement, raised five steps above the level of
the ground. It was 120 feet in length, and 70 feet in
breadth. Its cella, divided into several compartments,
was paved with mosaics, the masonry covered with
stucco. A curious enclosure in front of the steps is sup-
posed to have been a pen to contain victims — two altars
standing by its side. A few paces distant are the re-
mains of a small circular temple of eight Doric columns
of tufa, covering a ptirteal or well, protected by a circular
perforated altar. Either the water required for the
sacrifices was obtained from hence, or it was a sacred
spot — a bidental, or locus fulminatus — where a thunder-
bolt had fallen. Such a place was always regarded by
the Romans with peculiar sanctity. It was not allowable
to touch, to tread on, or to look at it. Whoever pro-
faned it would be punished by the gods with madness.
To violate its hallowed precincts was a foul sacrilege.*

* Horace, " Ars Poetica" (Epist. ad Pison.), 471.

136 A GLORIOUS LANDSCAPE.

It has been conjectured that this most ancient and
venerable pile, where the monotonous chant of the
priests was heard, and the bleeding sacrifices smoked
some two thousand six hundred and sixty years ago, was
erected on the site of a pottery of still older date, whose
debris have been discovered beneath its base. The spot is
elevated several hundred feet above the level of the plain
which it overlooks, on what was in fact the crest, the
apex of the isolated eminence which bore the houses, and
temples, and theatres of Pompeii. An exedra, or semi-
circular seat, at the south-west angle of the building, is
so placed as to command every detail in a most gorgeous
and extensive panorama. I wish that I possessed the
pen of a Ruskin to describe its wealth of beauty, its
plenitude of inspiration. Little idea could the reader
form of all that renders it attractive, from any cold, dull
inventory-like enumeration ot sapphire skies, and misty
uplands, and azure seas. But let him remember that the
view I speak of includes the chestnut-shaded hill of Cas-
tellamare — the olive-groves and rocky heights of Vico —
the vineyards, the mulberry-trees, the pomegranates, the
richly wooded valleys, and sea-washed cliffs of Tasso's Sor-
rento— the smiling isle of Capri, where Tiberius revelled
in the luxury of vice — and the broad unruffled azure of
that beautiful bay which he who has once seen never
forgets, the full outline of those ParthenopSan shores,
which song and fable have rendered famous, and art and
nature inexpressibly lovely; — let him remember this, I
say, and he will own that the scene might task the pencil
of a Claude or a Turner, and inspire the most melodious
song of a Shelley or a Keats, the former to realize its

THE GREAT THEATRE. 137

inner sense of beauty, the latter to embody its wonderful
richness of form and colour !

The city wall appears to have bounded the portico on
the southern side, while parallel to the eastern runs a
long low wall, terminated at the one end by the altars
and bidental already mentioned, and at the other by a
pedestal inscribed : — *

M . CLAUDIO . M . F . MARCELLO . PATRONO.

I have said that there were three — or rather four —
entrances from the eastern side of the piazza to different
parts of

THE GREAT THEATRE.

The two first, as you enter, open upon a large circular
corridor surrounding the entire cavea. The third leads
into an area behind the scene, from which a communication
is made with the orchestra, and the primus subselliorum
ordo — or what we English designate "orchestra-stalls;" the
fourth led down a long flight of steps, at the bottom of
which you turn to the right for the so-called Soldiers'
Barracks, to the left for the area already mentioned.
The corridor is vaulted : it has two other entrances, one
by a large passage from the east, and another from a
smaller passage on the north. Six inner doors, or
vomitoria, opened on an equal number of staircases
leading to the first pracinctio.^

The theatre is placed on the southern slope of the
hill, the corridor being the highest part, so that the
audience, upon entering, descended immediately to their

* Overbeck, " Pompeji," in loco.

* "Pompeii" (Library of Entertaining Knowledge), i. 260, 261.

138 THE AUDITORIUM.

seats. By the side of the first entrance is a staircase
leading up to the gallery where the women sat, for in the
ancient theatres they were separated from the men.
What a display of gems and embroidered robes, of
towering head-dresses and flashing eyes, must that gallery
have presented; a mass of the dark -haired, dark-eyed
women of the South congregated in one restricted space
— enough, methinks, to have shaken the confidence of
the most self-possessed of actors ! The seats here were
divided into compartments, like our boxes; each seat
being about fifteen inches high, and two feet four inches
wide. What think you was the space allotted to each
Pompeian dame? Exactly one foot three inches and a
half! I should like to see an English lady, en grande
tenue, accommodating herself within such circumscribed
limits ! But, owing to this arrangement, space was
obtained for seating — English ladies would say crowding
— about five thousand persons. *

The middle classes usually sat upon cushions, which
they brought with them; patricians on chairs of state,
carried to the theatre by their slaves. Flanking the
orchestra, but raised considerably above it, may be
observed two divisions whose appropriation is somewhat
uncertain. One, however, we may suppose to have been
reserved for the Roman proconsul, or the duumvirs and
their suite; the other for the vestal virgins, or for the
giver of the entertainments. This is the more probable,
says an authority of great credit, because in the smaller
theatre, where these boxes, if we may call them so, are
also found, they have a communication with the stage.

* For a good description of a Roman theatre, see Bckker's " Callus."

ITS PAST AND PRESENT. 139

How splendid an appearance must this structure have
presented in its palmy days ! It must have gleamed and
glittered in the sunshine like a fairy pile; the walls cased
with marble, the benches of marble, the orchestra of
marble, the scena, with its decorations — all of marble ;
but of this magnificence, and its statues, and its scenic
embellishments, scarce a vestige remains. There can be
no doubt that it escaped the more destructive effects of
the eruption, owing to its elevated position and the
great height of its outer work, and that the citizens
afterwards returned and removed its more precious
spoils.

From an inscription formerly found in it, on the first
step of the orchestra, with a central space for a statue,
it appears that the theatre, as well as a crypt, and
the tribunal, was erected by Marcus Holconius Rufus,
Duumvir, Military Tribune, and Patron of the Colony,
and that the decurions reared the statue in grateful ac-
knowledgment of his services.*

Let us now suppose we are viewing the interior from
one of the entrances leading to the orchestra. On the
right hand is the scena. From what remains it can be
seen that the three principal doors were deeply recessed ;
those at the sides rectangular, the central one circular.
In front of the latter stood two columns. Behind it is
the postscenium. From the eastern side of the stage a
covered portico led into the orchestra of the small
theatre, and was intended, perhaps, as a communication
between the privileged seats of either house, for the
accommodation of those entitled to make use of them.

* Overbeck, " Pompeji," i 145.

140 A VIEW OF THE INTERIOR.

In the wall supporting the front of the stage are seven
recesses, similar to those discovered in the theatre at
Herculaneum. There can be little doubt that these were
occupied by the musicians.

In front is the entrance to the orchestra. Above may
be seen the six rows of steps which encircled it; then
the cavea, despoiled of its marble, but still exhibiting the
lines of benches — summa cavea, media cavea, and infima
cavea — the stairs, or scalce, dividing them into cunei — and
the vomitoria, or doors of entrance. Higher still is the
women's gallery; and above that the external wall, which,
as it was never entirely buried, should surely have
pointed out to any observant traveller the exact situation
of the lost Pompeii.

COMIC SCENE (FROM A PAINTING AT POMPEII).

The same general plan and disposition of parts were ob-
served in

THE SMALL THEATRE, OR ODEUM.

In form, however, it is different; it approaches nearer to
a rectangle, the semicircle being cut off by straight walls

THE SMALL THEATRE. 141

from each end of the stage. A still more noticeable
difference is, that it was permanently roofed, as appears
from the following inscription : —

C . QVINCTIVS . C. F . VALG.

M . PORCIVS . M . F.
DVO . VIR . DEC . DECR.

THEATRVM . TECTVM.
FAC . LOCAR . EIDEMQ . PROB.

[Caius Quinctius Valgus, son of Caius, and Marcus Porcius, son of Marcus,
Duumvirs, by a decree of the Decurions, let out the covered theatre to be
erected by contract, and the same approved it.]

Either because built by contract, or because of greater
antiquity, it is inferior to the other theatre in construc-
tion and decoration. It is supposed to have been erected
shortly after the end of the Social War, and may have
been used for dramatic entertainments when the state of
the weather prevented open-air performances.

The material employed is tufa (from Nocera), except
that the scalae are constructed of hard Vesuvian lava,
well suited to resist the constant action of ascending and
descending feet. The scena, the front wall of the pro-
scenium, and the pavement of the orchestra, were entirely
marble; marble of various colours — African breccia, purple,
and giallo antico. A band of marble, in white and gray
stripes, traverses it from end to end of the seats, with
inlaid letters of bronze, eight and a half inches long, and
level with the surface, forming the following inscrip-
tion : —

M . OCVLATIVS . M . F . VERVS . DVIR . PRO . LVDIS.
[Marcus Oculatius Verus, son of Marcus, Duumvir for the Games.]

The pavement was probably laid down at the expense
of this munificent Pompeian.

(190) 10

142 CHAIRS OF STA TE.

Within the orchestra itself were four tiers of benches
for the bisellia, or chairs of state, in which the magis-
trates and great men of the city sat The bisellium was
usually made of bronze, richly ornamented with silver,
and supported on four upright legs. Two inscriptions
in the Street of Tombs lead us to infer that the right of
using it was a highly prized distinction, and only granted

FKESCO— A LANDSCAPE. (FOUND AT POMPEII.)

as a mark of honour to distinguished persons by the
magistrates and people in provincial towns. Though
large enough to contain two persons, only one occupied
it ; hence its name. The sella curu/is, or curule chair of
state, was confined to Roman magistrates, or to the pro-
consuls and praetors of the provinces.

The seats of the audience were separated by a passage
from the tiers of benches which held the bisellia. This
passage was bounded on the side of the stage by a high

THE SOLDIERS' BARRACKS. 143

parapet, ornamented with winged griffins' legs ; on the
side of the cavea, by a wall, terminating in two kneeling
Herculean figures, which are supposed to have sustained
bronze candelabra.

The cavea contained seventeen rows of seats, and the
whole theatre could probably accommodate fifteen hun-
dred persons.

Adjoining the small theatre stands a large rectangular
enclosure, which has been variously called Forum Nun-
dinarium, or the provision market ; and

THE SOLDIERS' BARRACKS.

It measures 183 feet in length by 158 in width, and
is surrounded by a Doric colonnade, with twenty-two
columns on the longer, and seventeen on the shorter
sides. These columns are covered with stucco; one-
third (the lower) is plain and painted red ; the upper
portion fluted, and coloured alternately red and yel-
low.

Under the colonnade are numerous small tenements,
which, it is conjectured, were occupied by butchers, and
vendors of vegetables, meats, and liquors. One ap-
pears to have been the soldiers' mess-room ; another the
guard-room ; a third, the prison ; in a fourth, uten-
sils for the manufacture of soap, and in a fifth, an
oil-mill, have been discovered. There are also stables,
a kitchen with all the necessary adjuncts, and stables for
the horses.

Above was a second story, approached by three nar-
row flights of steps, as well as by a staircase of better
construction, probably leading to the officers' chambers.

144 CURIOUS MEMORIALS.

A wooden gallery running all round it afforded a means
of communication from one room to another.

It has been matter of dispute whether this building
was appropriated as a barrack for the Roman garrison,
or as a school for gladiators. The balance of evidence
seems to me strongly in favour of the former hypothesis.
Over the whole spreads, if I may use the expression, a
strong flavour of military life. Among the articles dis-
covered here, for instance, were bronze and iron hel-
mets, shields, greaves for the legs, lances, swords, leather
belts, strigils, sword-belts of bronze richly ornamented,
officers' helmets finely inlaid or covered with admirable
bas-reliefs, ivory-handled swords, and numerous matters
of feminine attire belonging, we may conjecture, to
members of the officers' families. Among the latter
were gilt pins for the hair, chests of cloth of gold and
delicate white linen, ear-rings, jewelled bracelets, finger-
rings of gold, and costly necklaces — all indicative of
luxurious and careful toilets. In the guard-room four
skeletons were found, with their legs fixed in strong iron
stocks. An upper chamber contained eighteen skeletons
of men, women, and children, one of an infant, and
several of dogs — all surprised at the same moment by
an inevitable death. Under the stairs reclined a human
skeleton holding a cup of silver. Was he endeavouring
to escape with it 1 Or had he descended in quest of a
draught of wine? Inside one of the entrance gates
thirty-four skeletons lay in dread companionship — those
of the guard, doubtless, who had been summoned hastily
at the outbreak of the catastrophe, and overtaken by the
Invisible before they could dispose themselves in military

TEMPLE OF &SCULAPIUS. 145

array. The total number of skeletons discovered among
these ruins was sixty-three.

Behind the two theatres, and at the corner of the
street of Stabiae, stands the so-called

TEMPLE OF AESCULAPIUS,

excavated in 1766 — so called by Winckelmann, but per-
haps more generally known as the Theatre of Jupiter and
Juno. It is a small but well-proportioned building,
raised on a low basement of nine steps, and comprising
a small cella, with a tetrastyle pseudo-dystoral portico —
that is, with an external range of columns surrounding
the entire building. In the open court stands a large
altar, closely resembling the monument in the Vatican
known as the Tomb of the Scipios — the frieze being
composed of triglyphs with volutes at the corners. The
cella contained, when discovered, three terra-cotta statues
of yEsculapius, Hygeia, and Priapus.*

Between the theatres and the temple we observe the

HOUSE OF THE SCULPTOR,

remarkable only for its contents (now in the Neapolitan
Museum), which illustrated the ancient practice of the
" plastic art." Some statues were found here, half
finished ; others, just mere blocks of marble, whose
future proportions had scarcely been outlined by the
sculptor's hand. Here, too, compasses, calipers, pro-
portional compasses, rules and weights for drawing per-
pendicular lines and levelling, thirty-two mallets, three

* Overbeck, " Pompeji."

146 THE ISEON.

or four levers, numerous chisels, and several saws, at-
tested the nature of the owner's occupation. In the
midst of his work the doom had fallen on the city, and
he was suddenly called away from all his bright dreams
of the ideal, all his vivid conceptions of the beautiful, all
his essays to give a visible embodiment to those dreams
and those conceptions — to give a " local habitation " to
those "airy nothings" of the fervid brain. Did he ever
resume the task, I wonder? Or was he, too, among the
victims of the volcanic eruption ]

Returning westward, along the northern side of the
piazza, we arrive at a remarkable structure, the Temple
of Isis, or

THE ISEON.

It was but of recent erection at the date of the destruc-
tion of Pompeii, an older building having been de-
molished in the earthquake of the year 63. It stood on
a slightly elevated basement in the centre of an open
court, surrounded by a Corinthian portico of painted
columns, each column about one foot nine inches in
diameter. To the two nearest the entrance two lustred
marble basins were formerly attached, and a wooden
box, reduced to charcoal, probably intended as a re-
ceptacle for the contributions of worshippers. Over
the entrance was the following inscription : —

N. POPIDIVS . N. F. CELSINVS.
jEDEM . ISIDIS . TERR/B . MOTV . CONLAPSAM

A . FVNDAMENTIS . P. SVA . RESTITVIT.

HVNC . DECVRIONES ..OB . LIBERALITATEM .

CVM. ESSET. ANNORVM. SEXS. ORDINI . SVO.

GRATIS . ADLEGERVNT.

WORSHIP OF ISIS. 147

[Numerinus Popidius Celsinus, son of Numerinus, restored from the founda-
tion, at his own expense, the .flides of Isis, overthrown by an earth-
quake. The Decurions, on account of his liberality, elected him, when
sixty years of age, to be one of their order without paying fees.]

The reader will observe that this building was an
s, and not a Templum ; that is, it had never been
consecrated by the pontiff and augurs, for the worship of
Isis had been forbidden by a decree of the Roman Senate
in B.C. 57. It was nevertheless very popular in Italy,
where it had been introduced in the time of Sulla.*
The Roman ladies especially loved to patronize its cere-
monies, which combined licentiousness with mystery in
a peculiarly piquant manner. The oracles of the god-
dess at Pompeii, says Lord Lytton, were remarkable,
not more for the mysterious language in which they were
clothed, than for the credit which was attached to their
mandates and predictions. " If they were not dictated
by a divinity, they were framed at least by a profound
knowledge of mankind ; they applied themselves exactly
to the circumstances of individuals, and made a notable
contrast to the vague and loose generalities of their rival
temples."

Altars were erected on each side of the portico ; a
Corinthian portico of six columns, flanked by two wings,
with niches for the reception of statues. The walls of
the altar, elevated on seven steps of Parian marble, were
also adorned with statues, and with the pomegranate
symbol consecrated to Isis. An oblong pedestal occu-
pied the interior building, on which stood two images, —
one of the great Egyptian goddess; the other of the

* Dr. Smith's "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography," art. Isis.

148 PICTURES AND PRIESTS.

silent Orus — the Greek Harpocrates — with finger on his
lips as if to enjoin on the worshippers a reverent silence
regarding the mysteries displayed before them. Isis was
attired in purple drapery, holding a bronze sistrura — a
mystical instrument of music peculiar to her worship* —
and a key, indicative of her power to unlock the secrets
of the universe, or to open the flood-gates of the Nile.
The building contained many other deities to grace the
court of the Egyptian goddess ; her kinsman Bacchus or
Dionysius, — the Cyprian Venus, a Greek disguise for
herself, rising from her bath, — the dog-headed Anubis, —
the ox Apis, and various Egyptian idols of uncouth form.
The walls were covered with allegorical pictures, fantasti-
cally painted, but of great interest from their reference to
Isiac mysteries. The pedestal was hollow, with two
low apertures at the end near the secret stairs, so that
the priests, ascending, could enter it unperceived, and
astonish the deluded crowd by delivering the responses
as if from the very statue of the goddess. These priests
were known by the general name of Isiaca. According
to Herodotus, they were forbidden to eat the flesh of
swine or sheep. They shaved their heads, and wore
shoes of papyrus, and garments of linen, because Isis
first taught the use of linen, and was therefore called
Limgera, or the " linen-bearing." In their temples they
burned gums in the morning, myrrh at noon, and kyphy

* It consisted of a semicircular frame, crossed by four bars, which gave forth,
wJien shaken, a shrill loud sound. Plutarch says, the shaking of the bars within
the circular apsis symbolized the agitation of the four elements within the com-
pass of the world, by which all things are continually destroyed and reproduced.
The cat sculptured upon it represented the moon. — Dr. Smith, " Dictionary of
Antiquities," art. Sistrum, p. 1046.

ISIAC MYSTERIES. 149

— an unknown mixture of sixteen substances — in the
evening. Notwithstanding their vows of chastity, they
were a dissolute and vicious fraternity, and contributed
largely to that moral corruption which undermined the
stability of the Roman empire. The forms and cere-
monies introduced by them into the Italian cities were
but burlesques of the rules of the old Egyptian worship.
The profound mysteries of the Nile, it has been well ob-
served, were degraded by a hundred meretricious and
frivolous admixtures from the creeds of Cephissus and of
Tiber.

In the south-east corner of the temple enclosure
stands an cediculum, or chapel — a small building orna-
mented with pilasters, with an arched opening in the
centre, and over the arch a representation of figures in
the act of adoration ; a vase is placed between them.
The sediculum covered the sacred well, used for the
purification of the worshippers, and is embellished with
elegant though capricious arabesques in green, and yel-
low, and red. Near it is an altar, on which were dis-
covered the charred remains of the sacrifice ; and the
wall adjoining is still discoloured with the smoke of the
sacrificial fire. Other altars or pedestals remain within
the enclosure ; and on the two flanking the steps which
ascend to the temple were found two Isiac tables of
basalt, covered with hieroglyphics, now in the Museum
at Naples.*

In the south side, opposite the entrance from the
street, were the chambers for the priests, and a kitchen
in which they cooked their food. A skeleton lay in the

* Pompeii (" Library of Entertaining Knowledge"), i. 279.

ISO SKELETONS OF THE ISIACI.

outer room, conjectured to be that of a priest, who,
having found his escape at the door blocked up by the
fast falling ashes, had striven to cut his way through the
walls with an axe ; through two, indeed, he had hewn a
passage, but before he could pass the third, was stifled
by the deadly vapour. The axe was found lying by his
remains. Behind the temple is a large chamber, forty-
two feet by twenty-five, in which another skeleton was dis-
covered. He seems, like his comrade, to have been at
dinner when the supreme hour of Pompeii came. In
the sacred precincts lay many other skeletons, probably
those of the Isiaci, who, reposing an empty confidence in
the power of their deity, or stricken by panic fear, had
cowered around the desolate altars, until overtaken by
the deadly torrent of ashes. Faithful to their goddess
to the last, they perished in the very blindness of their
superstitious devotion.*

From the area, once sacred to the worship of the
Egyptian divinity, we pass onward to

THE TRIBUNAL,

formerly called the Curia Isiaca, and the "School," an ob-
long open court, 79 feet long by 57 feet wide, surrounded

* Isis, fabled to be the wife of Osiris, is said, from the Coptic word Isi, to
mean " abundance." Some identify her with Pallas, others with Ceres ; but she
is mostly represented as the goddess of the Moon, the Horn-bearing (iccpao^iopof),
from the lunar changes ; also, the Dark-robed (pcAoporoAot), because she shines
through the night. Under the name " Isis," the word Wisdom was occasionally
understood ; and in her temple was this inscription : — " I am the All that was, that
is, that shall be ; no mortal can lift my veil." Wonderful medicinal powers were
ascribed to her ; and many diseases, it was supposed, originated in her wrath.
She was believed to be the inventor of several medicines — even of the healing
art itself; and, therefore, the Romans called an universal medicine, Isis. — En-
nemoser, " History of Magic," i. 244, 245.

MYTHOLOGICAL FRESCOES.

on three sides by a portico of the Doric order, with two
chambers at one end, supposed to be the crypt, and an
elevated pulpitum for the judge at the side. Its uses
cannot be accurately determined, but it seems to have
been the tribunal alluded to in an inscription found in
the Greater Temple : —

M. M. HOLCONI . RVFVS FI . CELER

CRYPTAM . TRIBVNAL . THEATRVM. S. P.

AD . DECVS. COLONlA

[Marcus Holconius Rufus, son of Marcus, built the crypt, tribunal, and
theatre, for the honour of the city (colonta.).]

With a word of reference to a small but elegant house,
provided with a peristyle
and impluvium, which
was situated nearly op-
posite the Iseon, in the
street of Stabiae, and in
one of whose rooms may
be seen a rude but vi-
gorous picture of Her-
cules disguised among
the daughters of Om-
phale, — as well as a
cleverly designed group
of Venus and Adonis, —
we take our leave of the

so - called Triangular MYTHOLOGICAL FRESCOES (FOUND
Forum, and all its me-
morials of a strange but interesting antiquity.

VII.

or

" The garlands, the rose-odours, and the flowers."

BYRON.

" All through the lorn
Vacuity, winds come and go, but stir
Only the flowers of yesterday."

SYDNEY DOBELL.

|MONG the public edifices of Rome, scarcely
any were more deserving of admiration, on
account either of their magnitude, their archi-
tectural splendour, or their internal decorations, than the
Thermae, or Public Baths. These colossal structures were
all arranged on a common plan : they were surrounded
by a colonnade of shapely pillars, and stood among well-
ordered walks and extensive gardens, which were deco-
rated with leafy groves, with statues, and with sparkling
fountains. The main building contained not only ample
accommodation for bathing and swimming, but salons
for the conversation of lounging patricians, halls suitable
for gymnastic exercises, and rotundas where philosophers
might argue and poets declaim. These chambers were
of noble construction, were paved and lined with marble,
glittered with bust and statue and painting, and were
provided with libraries for the recreation of the studious.

THE ROMAN THERMS. 153

The Thermae were, in fact, for Rome what the clubs are
for aristocratic London, except that the public were ad-
mitted to them gratuitously, and that they were available
for the lower classes as freely as for the wealthiest patri-
cians.

It is not the province of the present writer to describe
the Roman Baths ; yet it seems desirable to afford the
reader some idea of their arrangement, as they were the
models on which those of Pompeii were fashioned.
Eustace, an author of eloquence and judgment, thus de-
scribes the present condition of the Thermcz of Caracalla,
among whose ruins, led me add, the poet Shelley wrote
his drama of " Prometheus Unbound." They occupy part
of the declivity of the Aventine hill, and a considerable
portion of the low ground between it, Mons Cceliolus, and
Mons Ccelius. " The length of the Thermae," he says,
" was 1840 feet, its breadth 1476. At each end were two
temples, — one to Apollo and another to ^Esculapius, as
the tutelary deities (genii tutelares) of a place sacred
to the improvement of the mind and the cure of the
body. The two other temples were dedicated to the
two protecting divinities of the Antonine family, Hercules
and Bacchus.

" In the principal building were, in the first place, a
grand circular vestibule, with four halls on each side for
cold, tepid, warm, and steam baths ; in the centre was
an immense square for exercise, when the weather was
unfavourable to it in the open air; beyond it a great
hall, where 1600 marble seats were placed for the con-
venience of the bathers ; at each end of this hall were
libraries. This building terminated on both sides in a

154 THEIR VAST EXTENT.

court surrounded with porticoes, with an Odeum for music;
and in the middle a spacious basin for swimming. Round
this edifice were walks shaded by rows of tf*ees, particu-
larly the plane ; and in its front extended a gymnasium
for running, wrestling, &c., in fine weather. The whole
was bounded by a vast portico opening into exedrae,
or spacious halls, where the poets declaimed and philoso-
phers gave lectures to their auditors.

" This immense fabric was adorned within and without
with pillars, stucco-work, paintings, and statues. The
stucco and paintings, though faintly indeed, are yet in
many places perceptible. Pillars have been dug up, and
some still remain amidst the ruins ; while the Farnesian
Bull and the famous Hercules, found in one of these
halls, announce the multiplicity and beauty of the statues
which once adorned the Thermae of Caracalla. The
flues and reservoirs of water still remain. The height of
the pile was proportioned to its extent, and still appears
very considerable, even though the ground be raised at
least twelve feet above its ancient level It is now
changed into vineyards and gardens, its high massive
walls form separations, and its tiny ruins, spread over the
surface, burn the soil and check its natural fertility."*

Pornpeii, I need hardly say, could boast of no such
imperial pile as this ; yet were its Thermae very com-
pactly and handsomely arranged, and decorated with
much artistic excellence. I shall now attempt a descrip-
tion of them, and conclude my description with a sketch
of the processes of ablution carried on within their walls.

The Thermae, or Public Baths, discovered in 1814, is

* Eustace, " A Classical Tour through Italy," i. 226, sqq.

CHARGES FOR BATHING. 155

a considerable establishment, having a frontage towards
three streets, and a principal entrance from the Street of
Fortune. All or most of the rooms opening into the
street, on each side this entrance, seem to have been
vaulted, and so were made to contribute to the support
of the arches thrown over the larger chambers in the in-
terior.

This entry, or passage, opened into a court about 60
feet long, bounded on two sides by a Doric portico
(ambulacrum), and on the third by a crypt. The seats,
which may be seen arranged round the walls, accommo-
dated the slaves while waiting for their masters. In this
court were found a sword with a leather sheath, which,
perhaps, belonged to the balneator, or keeper of the
baths, and the box for the quadrans, or piece of money,
which was paid by each visitor. The quadrans was the
fourth part of the assis, and the fourteenth of the dena-
rius, a sum so small that the cost of heating of the baths
could not have been defrayed without a crowd of bathers.*
We must, however, remember that many Romans bathed
seven times in a day. Horace playfully alludes to the
trifling sum at which they thus made themselves supremely
happy : —

" Dum tu quadrante lavatum
Rex ibis."

While you can bathe for a quadrans, he says, you are as
happy as a king ! — In the great Thermae of imperial
Rome no charge at all was made for admission.

In the Doric portico, persons waited for admission to
the Thermae, which could not conveniently accommodate

* Sir W. Cell, " Pompeiana," i. 91.

1 56 INA UGURA TION OF THE BA TIIS.

more than thirty bathers at a time. Here, therefore,
notices might suitably be exposed of public games, exhi-
bitions, and festivals. And here, on the south wall, still
may be read the following inscription, carrying back the
mind at one sudden bound over the crowded space of
eighteen hundred years : —

MAIO

UEDICATI (ro^v) NE PRINCIPI COLONIZE

FELICITER

.... RVM . MVNERIS . CN. ALLEI NIGIDI MAI.
VENATIO . ATHLETAE . SPARSIONES . VELA. ERUNT.

[At the dedication of the Baths, at the expense of Cnxus Alleius Nigidius
Maius, there will be a venatio, athletic contests, sprinkling of perfumes,
and awnings. Prosperity to Maius, chief of the colony.]*

From this inscription, it appears that the dedication or
inauguration of the Baths was celebrated by public games
at the cost of a liberal or popularity-hunting citizen,
named Maius, who had probably been selected by the
magistracy for this expressive honour. Evidently he
celebrated the event with great pomp. There were com-
bats between wild beasts, or between wild beasts and
men, gymnastic exercises, wrestling, leaping, throwing,
and the like ; while, to increase the comfort of the
spectators, awnings would be spread as a protection from
the burning sun, and the warm air tempered by showers
of perfumed water, t

From the court we pass, by a small corridor, into the

* The word poly, in the centre of the letter O, signifies " many," in Latin as
well as in Greek.

t According to Seneca, the perfumes were dispersed abroad by being mixed
with boiling water, and then placed in the centre of the amphitheatre, so that
rising with the vapour, they floated throughout the building.

THE APODYTERIUM. 157

apodyterium, or undressing-room, which is also accessible
by another corridor from a street now called the Street
of the Arch. Here were found above five hundred lamps
of terra-cotta, and upwards of a thousand were collected
in the whole circuit of the baths. Some were embel-
lished with figures of the Graces, and others with the
image of Harpocrates, but some were very artistically
wrought The ceiling of this passage is decorated with
stars.

The apodyterium (also called the spoliatorium or
apodyterium) derives its name from the A.iro8vrr)t.a. of the
Greeks. It was here the bathers undressed ; and you
still observe the holes in the walls in which were inserted
the pegs for hanging up their togas, their tunics, or their
pallia. Three seats made of lava were also provided for
their accommodation.

The chamber itself, which was always moderately
warmed, is spacious, and stuccoed from the cornice to
the ground, the stucco being highly finished and coloured
yellow. The cornice, of large dimensions, has " some-
thing of an Egyptian character ;" the carved frieze below
it is sprawled all over with dolphins, griffins, lyres, and
vases, on a red ground. The floor is handsomely paved
with white marble wrought in mosaic ; the ceiling con-
sisted of white panels within vermilion-coloured borders.
A little apartment at the north end was either a latrina,
or, if the light were sufficient, a tonstrina for shaving ; or
more probably it was a closet where the unguents,
strigils, and towels required by the bather were generally
kept.

There are six doors. One leading to the praspurnium ;

(190) 11

158 THE DECORATIONS.

another into the above-mentioned chamber ; the third,
by a narrow corridor, to the Street of the Arch ; the
fourth, to the tepidarium ; the fifth, to the frigidarium \
and the sixth, along a corridor, to the vestibule or
portico of the Thermae.

In the centre of the end wall of the room, a small recess,
once covered with a piece of glass, contained a lamp.
In the archivolt, or vaulted roof, immediately above this
recess, was placed a window, 2 feet 8 inches high, and 3
feet 8 inches broad, closed by a single large pane of cast
glass, two-fifths of an inch thick, fixed into the wall, and
ground on one side, so that persons on the roof might be
prevented from curiously prying into the apodyterium.
No error has been more general, and yet more absurdly
unfounded, than that the use of glass was very limited
among the ancients. The fact is, that they had attained
to considerable excellence in its manufacture. They
imitated every known marble and every precious stone,
and employed these admirable imitations in cups and
vases of every size and shape. A few years later than
the destruction of Pompeii we read of the calices alla-
son/es, or glass goblets, which shone with shifting prisma-
tic colours. Whole chambers even were lined with this
radiant material. In the time of Seneca the chambers
in the Thermae had their walls covered with glass and
Thasian marble, the water issued from tubes of silver, and
the principal decorations were mirrors of various sizes.

That the ancients were well acquainted with the art
of glass-blowing in all its branches, is evident from the
vast collection of bottles, glasses, and other utensils dis-
covered among the ruins of Pompeii.

THE FRIGIDARIUM* 159

To return to the apodyterium. In the window-lighted
compartment already spoken of, a large bas-relief in stucco
was found, whose subject seems to have been the over-
throw of the Titans by Jove (or Saturn ?), whose colossal
head figures conspicuously in the centre.*

Passing into \hefrigidarium,^or cold bath, we see before
us a circular chamber, lined with stucco, which appears
to have been painted originally in yellow and green.
The roof, in the form of a truncated cone, was coloured
blue. It had an opening, or window, near the top, from
which it was lighted.

In each angle of the room, which may be strictly de-
scribed as a circle enclosed by a square, an alcove is
placed, called by the ancients schola, a word derived
from the Hebrew, and signifying repose. Each is 5 feet
2 inches wide, by 2 feet £ inch deep ; the wall painted
blue, the conca or cove red, and the arch encircled with
a relieved border in stucco. In these niches were seats
for the convenience of the bathers.

About eight feet from the floor, a cornice encircles the
entire chamber, nearly eighteen inches high, coloured red,
and adorned in stucco with the representation of a
chariot-race of Cupids, — with Cupids on horseback and
on foot guiding and encouraging the competitors ; the
whole distinguished by a remarkable air of truth and

* Such is the description given by Sir \V. Cell. Another authority gives a
curiously different version : — " A large mask is moulded in stucco, with curling
hair and a most venerable floating beard. Water is sculptured flowing from the
locks of hair, and on each side two Tritons, with vases on their shoulders, are
fighting. There are also dolphins, who encircle with their tails the figures of
children struggling to disengage themselves." — Pompeii, vol. i. p. 157.

t Called the Natatio, by Sir W. Cell. — " Pompeiana," vol. L p. 100.

r6o

ITS CENTRAL BASIN.

lifelike spirit. The plinth, or base of the wall, is of
marble ; so is the pavement of the floor, and the seat 01
step which surrounds the central basin.

• /

THE KRIG1DARIUM.

The basin in the centre of the room (alveus) measures
12 feet 10 inches in diameter, 2 feet 9 inches in depth,
and is entirely lined with white marble. The bather
descended into it by two marble steps, and at the bottom

A SWIMMING-BATIT. 161

was a species of cushion (fulvinus), also of marble, on
which, if so disposed, he might rest himself. The water
ran into this bath in a large stream, through a spout or
lip of bronze four inches wide, placed in the wall at the
height of 3 feet 7 inches from the edge of the basin.
There was an outlet for the superfluous water ; and, in
all, a depth of about three feet for the bather. It was,
therefore, what we should call a cold bath, and by no
means a swimming bath according to our English notions.
What athletic Britain, indeed, would care for a plunge
into an artificial pond, about 31 feet in circumference,
and only three feet in depth ? Half-a-dozen strokes
would complete its circuit ! We are told, however, that
the natatorium of the Baths of Diocletian, at Rome, was
200 feet long, and about half that width; the Aqua
Martia supplying copious streams of water, which welled
forth in quaint artificial grottoes. The Pompeian piscina
can make no pretensions to vie with such imperial
magnificence, but not the less it is elegantly and skilfully
designed.

Through folding doors the bather, when his frame had
been hardened by the cold-water baths, passed into the
Tepidarium, or warm chamber, where a soft and genial
temperature insensibly prepared him for the intense heat
of the vapour and hot baths, or, vice versa, mitigated the
transition from those to the external air.* It was warmed
by a twofold agency : first, by means of a suspended
pavement heated by the distant fires of the stove of the
calidarium ; secondly, by means of a brazier (fociilare)
7 feet long and 2 feet 6 inches broad, made entirely of

* Dr. Smith's " Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities," art. Balnea.

1 62 PUNS UPON NAMES.

bronze, with the exception of an iron casing. The two
hind legs are plain, the two front are winged sphinxes,
terminating in lions' paws. The bottom consists of brass
bars. Bricks were laid on these, and on the bricks
lumps of pumice-stone, while the fire was made with
charcoal.* The rim is ornamented by thirteen battle-
mented summits, a lotus at the angles, and the figure of
a cow beneath.

For the accommodation of the bathers three seats of
bronze were provided, all of the same form and de-
sign. They were i foot 4 inches high, i foot wide,
and about 6 feet long; and inscribed with the name
of the donor, thus : —

M. NIGIDIVS . VACCVLA . P. S.

— i.e., Pecunia Sua, intimating that he defrayed the cost.
In punning allusion to his name, the legs of the seats
terminated in a cow's cloven hoofs, a cow's head forms
their upper ornament, and with a cow, as we have seen,
was decorated the foculare. Varro, in his " Treatise on
Husbandry," informs us that many of the Roman sur-
names originated in matters appertaining to a pastoral
life ; and especially in the animals to whose breed-
ing certain families devoted their particular attention.
Thus, the Porcii were originally swine-herds ; the Ovini,
sheep-breeders; the Caprilli bred goats, the Equarti
horses, and the Tauri bulls. We may conclude, there-
fore, that the family of the Vacculae were originally
cow-herds, and that the figures of cows so plentifully im-
pressed on all the articles which the patrician presented

* Overbeck, " Pompeji," i. 197. Becker, " Callus," ii. n, etc.

THE TEPWAKIUAr. 165

to the Thermae of his native town, are what the heralds
call " canting arms" — puns on his own name — as in
Rome' the family Toria caused a bull to be stamped on
their money.*

The tepidarium was embellished in a very splendid
and yet not inappropriate manner. The pavement was
of white mosaic, with two small borders of black ; the
ceiling worked in stucco, in low relief, with scattered
figures and ornaments of little flying genii delicately de-
signed on medallions, and surrounded with rich borders
of foliage — "signis ornatum et jucundis picturis;" the
walls glittered with crimson hues ; the cornice supported
by small Atlas figures, or Telamones,f about two feet
high, made of terra-cotta, encrusted with the finest
marble. These stand with their backs placed against
square pilasters projecting one foot from the wall, and
with an interval of one foot three inches and a half be-
tween each. They served to divide the chamber into a
number of niches, or recesses, in which the garments of
those who went into the sudatorium, or inner apartment,
to undergo the perspiring process, were laid up until
their return. Their only clothing is a girdle round the
loins ; they have been painted flesh colour, with black
hair and beards ; the moulding of the pedestal, and the
basket on their heads, is in imitation of gold ; and the
pedestal itself, as well as the wall behind them, and the
recesses for the bathers' clothes, have been coloured to
resemble red porphyry.

Pliny speaks of the tepidarium as " locum laxum et

* Pompeii (" Library of Entertaining Knowledge "), L 163.
t From the Greek raAatu, / sustain ; or r^via, I endure.

166

A PLEASANT RE TREA T.

hilarem amcenum a meridie illustratum." Both pleasant
and cheerful was that of Pompeii, with its radiant colours
and bright ornaments ; and I can fancy that the gay
patrician youth idled here through many an hour of

CEILING OF THE TEl'IDAKIUM.

sportive converse, discussing the latest fashion in tunics
imported from Rome, the last ode recited by the popular
poet of the day, or the comparative superiority of the
charms of a Lalage, an Amaryllis, or a Neaera. Here,
too, on their return from the Calidarium, they were

THE CALIDARIUM.

167

anointed and perfumed in the fashion which I shall after-
wards describe.

Into the Calidarium I must
now conduct the reader. It
answered to the modern va-
pour-bath. At Pompeii it was
a chamber 37 feet long by 17
feet 4 inches broad, with a
vault delicately ornamented
with stucco mouldings. Its
walls are so constructed that
a column of heated air en-
closes it on every side. This
is not effected by a multi-
plicity of flues, but by one
universal flue ; the said flue
being formed by a lining of
bricks or tiles strongly con-
nected with the outer wall by
iron cramps, yet distant about
four inches from it, so as to
leave a space

where the
heated air
might as-
cend from

the furnace, and equalize the temperature of the apart-
ment.

For a like reason the pavement is hollow. On a floor-
ing of cement (made of lime and pounded bricks) small
brick supports are built, 9 inches square, and i foot

ORNAMENTS OF THE TEPIDARIUM.

1 68

VESPAJO FLOCKING.

7 inches high, on which strong tiles, 15 inches square,
are carefully laid. The pavement, encrusted with mosaic,
rests upon these. The Italians call a flooring of this de-
scription vespajo, from its resemblance to a wasp's nest

THK CAUDARIUM.

The calidarium, like the other apartments, is well
stuccoed, and painted yellew; a highly-enriched cornice
is supported by fluted pilasters, coloured red, and placed
at irregular intervals. On one side of the room, in a

THE LACONIC UM. 169

large semicircular niche, called the laconicum, 7 feet wide,
and 3 feet 6 inches deep, painted red, and embellished
with stucco figures of Cupids and animals, was placed
the labrutn, a vase or tazza of white marble, for washing
the face and hands. It was about 5 feet in diameter,
but only 7 or 8 inches deep. In the centre the hot
water bubbled up through a small tube of brass. It was
raised about 3^ feet above the level of the pavement on
a round base of lava, stuccoed and coloured red, 5 feet
6 inches in diameter, and within it was engraved the
following inscription : — *

CN. MELIOS^O . CN. F. APRO . M . STAID .

M. F. RVFO . II . VIR . ITER . ID . LABRVM .

EX. D. D. EX. P. P. F. C. CONSTAT . HS. D.CCL.f
[Cneius Meliosxus Aper, son of Cneius Aper, and Marcus Staius Rufus, son
of Marcus Rufus, Duumvirs of Justice for the second time, caused the
labrum to be made at the public expense, by order of the Decurions.
It cost 750 sestertia (i.e., about £6}.]

At the other end of the room, opposite to the labrum,
was the hot bath, 4 feet 4 inches wide, 1 2 feet long, and
i foot 8 inches deep. It was wholly constructed of
marble, with one pipe to introduce the water, and was
elevated two steps above the floor. Its brink formed a
marble seat i foot 4 inches broad, from which the bather
descended to a single step, and thence into the hot water.
From the shallowness of the basin, it was evidently used
as a sitz, or sitting-bath.

* Overbeck, " Pompeji," i. 200.

t I give the Latin in full : — Cnaeo Meliosseo Apro, Cnaei Filio Apro, Marco
Staio Marci Filio Rufo, Duumviris Iterum, Jure Dicundo Labrum, Ex Decu-
rionum Decreto F.x Pecunia Publica Faciendum Curarunt. Constat Sester-
tium. D.CCU

170 THE WO MEWS BATHS.

We have seen, then, that the Thermae at Pompeii
consisted of but four principal rooms : —

The Apodyterium, or Dressing-Room ;

The Frigidarium, or Cold-Water Bath ;

The Tepidarium, or Warming-Room ; and

The Calidarium, or Vapour and Hot-Water Bath.
It is hardly necessary to say that the great Roman
Thermae were of a more luxurious and complete cha-
racter. Yet the Pompeian baths are skilfully arranged ;
space is prudently economized ; the parts are so distri-
buted as to offer the bather every facility ; the decora-
tions are elegant and profuse ; and though the modern
architect censures many errors of construction, they form
an agreeable and not unsatisfactory whole.

From the frigidarium a narrow passage led to the fur-
nace, upon which were placed three caldrons one above
another. These were intrusted to the charge of persons
called fornacatores, and the furnace was variously named
fornax, ostium furni, propnigeum, and prafurnium.

•WOMEN'S BATHS.*

The Women's Baths at Pompeii differ only from the
men's in their smaller dimensions and less abundant
decoration. They were heated by the same fire, and
supplied with water from the same caldrons or boilers.
They contained a frigidarium, with a cold bath or nata-
torium, a tepidarium, and a calidarium, with laconicum
and hot-water bath. The first chamber measures 25 feet
by 12 feet 9 inches. The-floor is white mosaic, with a
border of black ; the walls have been ornamented with

* Sir W. Cell, " Pompeiana," L 131, tfy.

THE NEW THERMS. 171

alternate red and yellow pilasters, on a blue or black
ground. This room was also the undressing or robing-
room, and could accommodate ten persons at one time.
The tepidarium is about 20 feet square, and painted
yellow, with red pilasters. The calidarium contained
some grotesque paintings upon a yellow ground ; its
pavement was a mosaic of white marble.

We must now direct the reader's attention to what are
called, by way of distinction,

THE NEW BATHS,

because excavated as recently as 1858-61. These are
on a larger and more magnificent scale than the others,
and were probably patronized by the wealthier inhabi-
tants of Pompeii. Their decorations are superb, and
their "fittings" luxurious.

The main entrance is from the Street of Abundance,
by a wide portal which opens into an ample court or
palcestra, surrounded by fluted Doric columns with carved
capitals. The walls are enriched with a variety of ara-
besques, paintings, and figures in relief, some of which
are in tolerable preservation. On one side stands an
oblong basin for a cold bath, from which the bather
ascended to either of two graceful halls, whose walls are
embellished with vividly-coloured landscapes, and figures
of nymphs and damsels carrying baskets.

A door opposite the entrance opens on a tepidarium,
and on a corridor, from which several private cabinets
lead off, each adapted to receive a single bather. On
the other side is a spoliatorium, with compartments for the

172 THEIR INTERIOR.

reception of clothes, and a square frigidarium at one
end. From the latter a passage leads into a large square
chamber, with hollow walls constructed on the plan
already described, for the passage of hot air — this was
ihecafafarium; and into another chamber of ample dimen-
sions, the tepidarium, which contains not only the usual
bath, square, and wholly made of marble, but a foun-
tain of elegant design. The decorations are everywhere
marked by grace and spirit.

The whole side of the Thermae towards the Street of
Stabiae is occupied with apartments. There are three
circular sunk spaces, which probably contained the fur-
nace for the supply of hot water; two tepidaria, each
fitted up with hollow walls and suspended floors, and
with square marble-lined basins; a splendid apodyterium,
or spoliarium, divided into three portions by as many
circular arches, surrounded by marble seats, and richly
adorned with stucco relievos of Bacchanals and winged
Loves, rosettes, garlands, and fantastic devices. From
the apodyterium you pass into a noble atrium, also deco-
rated with a profusion of fanciful ornament, and thence
into the palastra, or into a circular frigidarium, resem-
bling in plan and details the frigidarium of the old Thermae.

A bronze foculare, and seats of bronze, have been dis-
covered here ; a sun-dial, with an inscription in Oscan
characters, representing that it was raised by Atinius the
quaestor from fines levied according to the municipal law;
the conduit which supplied the baths with water, and
the smaller tubes that distributed it into the various
rooms ; and also another inscription relative to the erec-
tion of the laconicum, or vapour-bath, and the destricta-

BA THERS AND BA THING. 1 73

rium, where the operation of scraping by the strigil was
performed.*

C. VLIVS . C. F. P. ANINIVS . C. F. H. V. I. D.

LACONICVM . ET . DESTRICTARIVM

FACIVND . ET PORTICVS . ET PALAESTR

R. EFICIVNDA . LOCARVNT . EX. D. D. EX.

EA . PECVNIA . QVOD . EOS . E. LEGE.

IN LVDOS . AVT . IN MONVMENTO

CONSVMERE . OPORTVIT . FACIVN.

COCRARVNT . EIDEMQVE . PROBARV(AT).

[Caius Ulius, son of Caius, and Publius Animus, son of Caius, Duumvirs of
Justice, caused to be erected, in obedience to a decree of the Decurions
and with the money which, according to law, they were bound to bestow
on the games or public monuments, the Laconicum and Destrictarium,
and restored the Portico and Palaestra ; approving of the same.]

With this description of the Pompeian Thermae, my
readers will probably be content. I now proceed to
explain the elaborate bathing processes undeigone by
their patrons.

On entering the apodyterium, those who took only
the cold bath began to undress; they suspended their
garments to pegs fastened in the wall, and named caprarii
from their resemblance to goats' horns, and received,
from their own slaves if they were wealthy, or else from
the attendants of the Thermae, loose robes more suited to
lavatory operations.

Those who intended to indulge in the hot-bath passed
forward into the tepidarium, and, after enjoying for some
few minutes its genial voluptuous air, proceeded to un-
robe themselves. They were then conducted by slaves
called capsarii (from capsa, the case or bag in which chil-

* Overbeck, " Pompeji," i. 205.
(190) 12

174 THE SCRAPING PROCESS.

dren carried their books to school), into the sudatorium, to
undergo the gradual process of the vapour-bath, accom-
panied by an exhalation of balmy perfumes. This opera-
tion over, they were seized by the slaves and subjected
to the tender mercies of the strigil, which rasped the skin
so as to open its pores very thoroughly. It was not a
pleasant process, however skilfully performed, and Sueto-
nius asserts that the Emperor Augustus suffered severely
from rough usage. However, it cleansed the skin from
the copious perspiration induced by the hot vapour, and
gave it a brilliant polish. In the Turkish baths its place
is supplied by a bag or glove of camel's hair, which,
without pain, peels off the perspiration in large flakes,
and leaves the skin wonderfully soft and smooth. Per-
sons of quality carried with them their own apparatus,
whence Persius says —

" I, puer, et strigilis Crispi ad balnea defer." *
[Go, boy, and carry Crispin's strigils to the baths.]

They were curved at one end like a sickle, and were made
of bone, bronze, iron, and silver. Their edge was mo-
derately sharp, and softened by the application of oil.
Spartianus relates an amusing anecdote in reference to
their use.

" The Emperor Hadrian," he says, " who went to the
public baths and bathed with the common people, seeing
one day a veteran whom he had formerly known among
the Roman troops, rubbing his back and other parts of
his body against the marble, inquired of him the reason.
The veteran replied that he had no slave to scrape him :

* Persius, " Satires," v. 126.

A S WE A TING BA TH. 175

whereupon the emperor gave him a couple of slaves, and
a sufficient sum for their maintenance. Another day,
several old men, beguiled by the veteran's good fortune,
rubbed themselves also against the marble in the em-
peror's presence. They thought by this means to excite
the generosity of Hadrian ; but he, perceiving their drift,
bade them rub one another."*

Cooled and refreshed, the bathers now passed into the
hot-water bath, over which fresh perfumes were freely
scattered. This is called the balineum by Cicero, piscina
by Pliny, and calda lavatio by Vitruvius. The vapour-
bath, as I have previously stated, bore the appellation of
the laconicum, because it was the custom of the Lacede-
monians to strip and anoint themselves without using
warm water after the perspiration produced by the ath-
letic exercises. It is termed assa by Cicero, from a£o),
to dry ; because it produced perspiration by means of a
dry, hot atmosphere — which Celsus consequently describes
as sudatione assas, dry sweating, f

Wrapping themselves in their light bathing-robes, the
bathers returned from the calidarium to the tepidarium,
and prepared to enjoy the special luxury of this series of
luxurious ablutions. They were now anointed by slaves
(called unctores and aliptce) from vials of gold, alabaster,
or crystal, filled with the rarest unguents collected from
all quarters of the world. Of these the ancients possessed a
store which would astonish even a Rimmel or a Houbigant !
Among the oils named are the mendesium, megalium,
metopium, amaracinum, cyprinum, susinum, nardinum,

* Spartianus, " Hadriani," c. 17.

t Dr. Smith's " Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities," p. iqi.

176 ANCIENT PERFUMES.

opicatuin, and jasmine ; and the Emperor Heliogabalus
never bathed without oil of saffron or crocum, which
was esteemed most precious.* We read also of nitre and
aphronitrum in the baths. To these were added all kinds
of odoriferous powders called diapasmata. The liquid
unguents were named stymmata, and the solid, hedys-
mata. Pliny speaks of a regal unguent, originally pre-
pared for a Parthian king, w.hich consisted of no less
than twenty-seven ingredients. Some of these articles
were very costly, and sold for as much as 400 denarii,
or about ^"14 per Ib.f

Common perfumes were sold in little gilt shells, or
vessels made of terra-cotta ; the more valuable, in bottles
(unguentaria) of alabaster, onyx, or glass, numbers of
which have been discovered at Pompeii. To such an
excess did the Romans carry their use, that the Latin
satirists are full of invectives against the practice. Mar-
tial describes a dandy of those days in bitter lines : —

" A beau is one who with the nicest care
In parted locks divides his curling hair ;
One who with balm and cinnamon smells sweet,
Whose humming lips some Spanish air repeat ;
Whose naked arms are smoothed with pumice-stone,
And tossed about with graces all his own." {

While Juvenal, alluding to the employment of cosmetics
for the complexion — made into a kind of poultice, which
was kept on the face all night and part of the day —
asserts that a husband never saw his wife's face at home.
But when, attired in all her pomp, she issued forth to
receive the applause of the unthinking, —

• Sir W. Cell, " Pompeiana," i. 112. t Rimmel, " Book of Perfumes," p. log.
J Martial, " Epigramm.," b. Ixiil

HOURS FOR BATHING. 177

" The eclipse then vanishes, and all her face
Is opened and restored to every grace ;
The crust removed, her cheeks as smooth as sillc
Are polished with a wash of asses' milk ;
And should she to the furthest North be sent,
A train of these attend her banishment."*

Our bathers, perfumed and anointed to their hearts'
content, may now pass into the portico or palaestra, and
enjoy some gentle exercise, previous to their mid-day
meal.

The public were informed, by the ringing of a bell
placed above the Thermae, when the water was sufficiently
heated, and the baths ready for use. The hour for bath-
ing, according to Pliny, was eight in winter and nine in
summer ; but this must have frequently varied. Between
two and three in the afternoon was, however, considered
the most desirable time for the gymnastic exercises of the
palaestra and the use of the baths. The Emperor Had-
rian forbade all but invalids to enter the Thermae before
two o'clock. This was probably done as a check upon
the folly and extravagance of the loungers, who would
fain have spent all their days in personal adornment.
At a certain hour — five o'clock in the afternoon, accord-
ing to several authorities — the fires were extinguished
and the baths closed. But Alexander Severus, to gratify
the Romans in their frenzy for bathing, not only suffered
them to be opened at break of day, which had never
before been permitted, but provided them with oil-lamps,
that they should not be closed too early in the evening
on account of the darkness.

They became, in course of time, convenient places for

* Juvenal, " Satires" (Translation by Dryden), Sat. vi.

1 78

LUXURY AND LICENCE.

the congregation of the dissolute and criminal, and the
disorders that took place within them could only be sup-
pressed by severe measures. They therefore became
unpopular, and as Christianity spread abroad, fell into
still greater disrepute ; while the magnificent edifices
erected by the emperors were destroyed during the bar-
barian invasions, or suffered to fall into ruinous decay
through the lack of public spirit

A WINK-CART — MEN KILLING THB AMI'HOKA (frROlo A HDMPBJAN FRKSCO).

VIII.

jousts of |)0mpen.

' The Pompeian houses resembled in some respects the Grecian, but mostly the
Roman fashion of domestic architecture. In almost every house there is
some difference of detail from the rest, but the principal outline is the same
in all. In all you find the hall, the tablinum, and the peristyle, communicat-
ing with each other ; in all you find the walls richly painted ; and in all the
evidence of a people fond of the refining elegancies of life. The purity of the
taste of the Pompeians in decoration is, however, questionable : they were
fond of the gaudiest colours, of fantastic designs ; they often painted the
lower half of their columns a bright red, leaving the rest uncoloured ; and
where the garden was small, its wall was frequently tinted to deceive the
eye as to its extent, imitating trees, birds, temples, &c., in perspective — a
meretricious delusion which the graceful pedantry of Pliny himself adopted,
with a complacent pride in its ingenuity." — LORD LYTTON.

ITHERTO we have occupied ourselves with a
consideration of the public life of the Pom-
peians. We have traversed their Forum and
their streets ; we have visited their theatres
and amphitheatres ; we have entered their temples ; we
have witnessed their lavatory processes in the Thermae ;
in all observing the revealed evidence of manners,
customs, and tastes widely different from our own. We
must now pass within their domestic penetralia — must
cross the thresholds of their private houses — and gather
what information we may concerning their home-economy
and the conditions of their daily life, — a subject of higher

i8o THE HOME-FEELING.

and more immediate interest, and which we shall, there-
fore, venture to discuss with some degree of detail.*

Previous to the exhumation of Pompeii, the scholar
and the antiquary found it difficult to bring before the
labouring imagination a correct presentment of a Roman
house. But now it is comparatively easy for even the
dullest, by the aid of pen and pencil, to know under
what manner of roof, and in what species of " interior,"
the men of old — to most of us mere historical phantoms,
instead of what they should be, flesh and blood realities —
passed so much of their stirring lives as they gave up to
home.

Home ? Did the Romans understand the wealth of
domestic happiness, the tender ties, the kindly relation-
ships, the genial interests, which we British strive to ex-
press by that one word — Home? Surely not. They
lived more in public than we do. They were always
en tenue, I fancy ; always considering in what light they
appeared to the great world. There is a fine passage in
Catullus :—

" And every dimple on the cheek of Home
Shall smile to-night ; "

but Catullus writes and feels as a poet, and I believe that
the home-feeling in these lines was known but to few of
his countrymen. Every well-to-do Roman's house was,
in fact, divided into two parts ; one intended for the
uses of the family, the other for public receptions. This
was in some measure d»e to that Roman institution

* See Mazois, " Le Palais de Scaurus ; " Becker, " Callus ; " Smith, " Dictionary
of Greek and Roman Antiquities," in lads.

A ROMAN HOUSE. 181

which permitted every plebeian to choose from among
the patricians a patron, whose client he thenceforth called
himself. The patron was bound to advise, to defend, to
assist, to support his client ; the client to serve his patron
with his life and fortune. Thus, the public rooms of a
wealthy and influential patrician were crowded from
early dawn with his suitors and retainers, who sought his
favour, implored his counsel, or supplicated his charity.

The public part, then, included the portico, vestibule,
cavaedium or atrium, tablinum, alae, fauces, and others of
less importance.

The private : the peristyle, cubicula, trichinium, aeci,
pinacotheca, bibliotheca, thermae, exedra, and xystus.

Let us now endeavour to build up a house which shall
exhibit to our inspection these various apartments.

Having passed the j'anua, or gate, whose folds bent
inwards — a Roman could not open his door outwards
except by a special law ! — and taken note of the inscrip-
tion at the threshold — Cave Canem (Beware of the dog)
— we pass across the vestibule, and through another door
into the atrium, or hall.*

This, you see, is a large oblong square, surrounded
with covered galleries, which rest on pillars of gleaming
marble. The side facing you is called the tablinum —
from tabula, or tabella, a picture — and forms a receptacle
for the family archives, the " genealogical tree," the busts,
the pictures, and other heirlooms of a long line of an-

* The word atrium, according to Varro, is derived from the Atriates, a Tuscan
people, who gave the pattern of it. The cav&dium seems to have been but an-
other word for the same thing : it was the " hollow of the house "— cavum aedium.
At first, it was the common room of the whole family, but in due time was given
up to public purposes.

182 THE ATRIUM.

cestors. The other sides on the right and left, the aid,
are similar but smaller recesses, where strangers and
other guests may occasionally be lodged. Yonder narrow
passages leading into the interior of the house are appro-
priately called fauces, or jaws. You may remember
Virgil's expressive adoption of the term :

" Vestibulum ante ipsum, primisque in faucibus Orel ;"

which Conington renders thus : —

" At Orctu' portals hold their lair,' —

missing, I venture to think, the peculiar force of the
phrase. Before we enter either of these fauces, however,
we have much to notice still in the atrium.

In the centre of the roof observe an opening, com-
pluvium, towards which the roof slopes, so as to eject the
rain-water into a cistern in the floor called- the impluvium.
An intolerable nuisance would such an arrangement
prove in a wet climate like that of Great Britain ; in
Italy it was more endurable, but must still have been un-
satisfactory. The edge of the compluvium is ornamented
with gay tiles (antefixa), moulded with masks and fantastic
figures; and the spouts at the corners which carry the water
into the impluvium are fashioned into the heads of lions
and dogs, which probably suggested the corbels and other
grotesque devices of the Gothic architects. Usually the
atrium was adorned with fountains, supplied with water
from the aqueducts through pipes of lead, and very
pleasant on a summer's day was the musical fall of the
silvery drops, and the coolness which they diffused
through the air. Observe that the opening in the roof is

THE TRICLINIUM. 183

shaded by a gaily-coloured awning, so as to temper the
burning heat of Italy's sun, and spread abroad a mellow
light The Roman loved the glow of colours and the
beauty of form ; so the walls, as you see, are painted with
arabesques of fanciful designs, and landscapes seemingly
borrowed from Fairyland, each set round with a border
of marble slabs of the rarest and most costly kinds. The
pavement is enriched with mosaics, arranged in exquisite
geometrical patterns.

Let us now pass into the private portion of the house,
and leave behind us the hum of the noisy clients.
Through the tablinum we enter the peristyle, which re-
minds us at once, in its general arrangement, of the
atrium. It is a court, open to the sapphire sky in the
middle, and surrounded by a bright and stately colon-
nade. Its owner has embellished the area with parterres
of blooming flowers and clumps of glossy evergreens, so
that it is rather what the Romans call a xystus than a
peristyle. In shape it is an oblong.

Turning aside from the cubicula, or bed-chambers, which,
indeed, are low and insignificant, and entirely deficient
in what we now understand as comfort, we next proceed
to inspect the triclinium, or dining-room, so named from
the three couches which encompassed the table on three
sides, leaving the fourth open to the attendants. This is
the most sumptuously decorated apartment in the house ;
for our Romans, like aldermen and common-councilmen,
loved the pleasures of the table, and failed not to display
the utmost magnificence in everything connected with
their entertainments. In a wealthy patrician's house were
frequently several triclinia. Every school-boy knows the

1 84 TAPESTRIED WALLS.

story of the sumptuous Lucullus, who had a separate
triclinium for each style of banquet, and who, having in-
vited Pompey and Cicero to a private supper, merely
despatched a message to his servants that he would sup
in the hall called Apollo, to ensure the preparation of
an entertainment worth 50,000 denarii (about ^1600).
The ceiling was sometimes contrived to open, and admit
of the descent of a second course, with showers of choice
blossoms and a spray of perfumed waters, while rope-
dancers, or funambuli, performed their wondrous feats
over the heads of the company.

The triclinium,* into which we have just entered, is
twice as long as it is broad, and divided, as it were, into
two parts — the upper occupied by the table and the
couches, the lower left empty for the accommodation of
servants and spectators. Around the former the walls,
up to a certain height, are hung with valuable tapestry.
It was the fall of these hangings, the classical student
will remember, caused dire confusion at that supper of
Nasidienus' to which Horace was invited : —

" Interea suspensa graves aulxa ruinas
In patinam fecere ; trahentia pulveris ntri
Quantum non Aquilo Campanis excitat agris,"— t

when they filled the chamber with such a cloud of black
dust as not even the east wind stirs up on the plains of
Campania! The decorations of the remainder of the
room are handsome, and appropriate to its destination :
garlands, mingled with the trailing ivy and graceful vine,

* The following description is adapted in the main from the elaborate and ex-
haustive work of Mazois, "Le Palais de Scaurus," c. ix.
f Horace, "Satires," bk. ii., s. 8, 1. 54-5*).

POMPEIAN FRESCOES.

185

divide the walls into compartments, edged round with
fanciful borders ; in the centre of each, touched with the

FEMALE CENTAUR AND BACCHANTE (FROM A POMPEIAN FRRSCO).

painter's liveliest skill, young fawns are frisking, or Cen-
taurs and half-naked Bacchanals, riding, sporting, danc-

MALE CENTAUR AND BACCHANTE (FROM A POMPEIAN FRESCO).

ing, carrying thyrsi, vases, goblets, and other festal
appurtenances. A large frieze above the columns is set

186 LAMPS, TABLES, AND COUCHES.

out in twelve compartments ; each is surmounted by one
of the signs of the zodiac, and contains a painting of the
viands in highest season in that particular month of the
year: thus, under Sagittarius, or December, you see
shrimps, shell-fish, and birds of passage ; to Capricornus,
or January, belong lobsters, sea-fish, wild boar, and game ;
and to Aquarius, or February, pigeons, water-rails, ducks,
and plovers.

Bronze lamps, manufactured at ^Egina, and costing
from ^200 to ^400 a-piece, suspended from chains of
the same metal, as in Dido's regal hall —

" From the gilt roof hang cressets bright,
And flambeau-fires put out the light " —

or raised on richly wrought candelabra, stream through
the room a brilliant light. Slaves, whose peculiar charge
it is to tend them, trim the wicks, and from time to time
supply the necessary oil.

The table, made of citron wood from the extremity of
Mauritania, more precious than gold, rests upon an ivory
pedestal, and is covered by a plateau of solid silver,
chased and carved. The couches, which will accommo-
date thirty guests, are made of bronze, overlaid with
rich ornamental work in silver, gold, and tortoise-shell.
The mattresses, of Gallic wool, are dyed purple ; the
luxurious cushions, fit for Venus herself to repose upon,
are covered with superb stuffs, embroidered in threads
of gold. Our host informs us that they were woven in
the looms of Babylon, an<l cost four millions of sesterces
(about ,£32,000).

Now observe the mosaic pavement. You will see that

THE OECI AND E%EDR&. 187

it represents all the fragments of a feast, as if they had
fallen in common course on the floor. At the first
glance you would suppose the room has not been swept
since the last meal ; and hence it is called d0apom>s WKOS,
the unswept saloon. Large vases of Corinthian brass
glitter at the end of the hall. And now, while we
stand admiring their graceful shape, some young slaves
enter, and strew over the polished pavement sawdust
dyed with saffron and vermilion, and mingled with
a brilliant powder made from the lapis specularis, or
talc.

Here we may close our imaginary visit to a Roman
house, and content ourselves with a brief description of
its remaining chambers.

The Oeci, from the Greek oucos, were large halls or
saloons, whose design was borrowed from the Greeks,
like their name. They resembled the triclinia, but hav-
ing columns, were more spacious. Four kinds are de-
scribed by Vitruvius : — The tetrastyle, whose roof was
supported by four pillars ; the Corinthian, with but one
row of columns, which sustained the architrave, cornice,
and a vaulted roof; the more splendid Egyptian, resem-
bling a basilica, with a gallery resting on pillars, open to
the sky, and surrounding the room, so as to afford a
pleasant promenade ; and the Cyzicene, intended only
for summer use. The latter generally opened upon a
flower-garden through folding-doors.

The Exedrce bore a double signification. They were
either seats intended to contain a number of per-
sons, or spacious rooms for conversation and other
social purposes. In the Thermae, or public baths, the

1 88

THE PICTURE-GALLERY.

same term was applied to the semicircular apartments

set aside for the resort of philosophers.

The Pinacotheca, or picture-gallery, was devoted, as

its name implies,
to the reception
of paintings and
statues. It was
of ample size,
and faced the
north, in order
that the light
might be equa-
ble, and not too

AN ANCIENT GALLEY (FROM A POMPEIAN FRESCOJ.

strong.
Only a

small

room was re-
quired for the Bibliotheca, or library. The rolls (volu-
mina) which made up the books of the Romans were
easily arranged in a very limited space. It was the
fashion, however, to set aside a bibliotheca in every opu-
lent house, though its owner might be scarcely able to
read the titles of his manuscripts. Cases containing the
rolls were placed around the walls, and at suitable points
statues of Minerva and the Muses, and busts and por-
traits of eminent personages, were set up. The cases
were variously called armaria, loculamenta, foruli, or nidi.

Of the Balneae, or baths, frequently found attached to
private houses, the arrangements were similar, though
necessarily on a smaller 'scale, to those which obtained
in the public institutions.

Such were the chief apartments of a Roman house.

GENERAL ARRANGEMENTS. 189

They were on the ground-floor ; the upper stories being
generally appropriated to the slaves, freedmen, and lower
branches of the family. We must except, however, the
terrace upon the top of all (solarium], a favourite prome-
nade and place of resort, adorned with rare flowers and
shrubs planted in beds of mould, and with statues,
sparkling fountains, and garlanded trellises, under which
the evening meal might at pleasure be taken. In houses
of different classes a different distribution of rooms was
found. Some possessed several triclinia ; some had
neither bibliotheca nor pinacotheca : as in modern times,
all depended upon the wealth and taste of the owner.
To men of moderate fortune, says Vitruvius,* magnifi-
cent vestibules, and tablina, and atria, are needless, for
they attend upon persons of higher rank instead of enter-
taining numerous visitors at home. Those who dispose
of their rural produce require shops and stables at the
entrances of their houses, granaries and storehouses
below, and other arrangements appertaining rather to
use than to beauty. The houses of money-lenders, and
of those who farm the revenue, should be on a hand-
some scale, and secure against attacks. Lawyers and
public speakers require more elegant accommodation,
and apartments capable of receiving a large assemblage.
For patricians who hold the offices and honours of the
state, and who are consequently exposed to a crowd of
suitors, regal vestibules, lofty halls, and ample peristyles
are indispensable ; with leafy plantations, and extensive
walks, laid out with every attention to magnificence.
They should also have libraries, picture-galleries, and

* Vkruvius, " De Architectura," vi. 7, 8.
(190) 1 3

igo / '/.( 'OKA TION OF ROMAN HOUSES.

basilioe ordered upon the same scale as public buildings,
for in their mansions both public business and affairs are
frequently discussed and determined.

The Roman houses were very sparingly decorated.
Neither gold nor silver was generally employed, nor
those luxuries in cabinet-work and furniture which are so
prized by the moderns. Their mosaic pavements, how-
ever, were of exquisite beauty. The walls were adorned
with a stucco of great excellence, equally adapted to
receive pictorial embellishment or to be modelled into
bas-reliefs. This stucco was called albarium, from its
whiteness, or opus marmoratum, from its resemblance to
marble. It seems to have been made of calcined
gypsum (plaster of Paris), mixed with pulverized stone,
and, in the more expensive sort, with powdered marble.
A wall thus prepared was divided by the artist into rect-
angular compartments, which he filled with free and
fanciful designs of landscapes, buildings, animals, gar-
dens, or ideal subjects.*

With these introductory remarks, I proceed to an
examination of some of the houses of Pompeii.

THE HOUSE OF THE TRAGIC POET, t

This elegant mansion, for so it would be termed in
Mayfair or Belgravia, was discovered in 1824, when it
received the misnomer by which it is still popularly dis-

* Compare Mazois, " Le Palais de Scaurus ;" Becker, "Callus ;" and " Pom-
peii," in the Library of Entertaining Knowledge.

t To prevent a recurrence of unnecessary references, I may state at the out-
set that my description is based upon the works of Overbeck, Mazois, Sir
William Cell, Dr. Dyer, and the volumes of the Library of Entertaining Know-
ledge entitled " Pompeii."

THE VESTIBULE.

193

tinguished, from a painting extant upon its walls. It is
situated in the Street of the Baths, in the same " insula,"
or block, that contains the Fullonica and Houses of the
Fountains. When first excavated, it attracted the ad-
miration of every visitor from the beauty and richness of
its decorations. Most of these have been removed to
the Museum at Naples ; and in the following description,
therefore, the reader must understand me to speak of it
as it was, not as it is.

The doors, turning upon pivots received in two brass
sockets let into the marble threshold, admit us within a
long and narrow VESTI-
BULE, where the first [T * /( • \ • «»»•»., «|
object which greets the
eye is the somewhat
alarming one of a large
and fierce dog preparing
to spring upon the in-
cautious visitor. Look
closer, however, and you
perceive it is but a de-
vice wrought on the pavement in mosaic, with the well-
known inscription beneath of

Cave Canem (Beware of the dog)

An inscription, as we learn from a passage in Petronius
Arbiter, not unfrequently placed at the entrance of
Roman houses.

The vestibule is about 6 feet wide, and nearly 30
feet long. On either side lies a chamber of moderate
dimensions, which may have been set apart for the re-

BEWARE OF THE DOG !

194 HOUSE OF THE TRAGIC POET.

ception of ordinary visitors, or have been occupied by
the servants of the family. At all events, I cannot agree
with those authorities who would convert them into
shops.

Advancing up the vestibule, and drawing aside a rich
curtain, we enter the ATRIUM, which measures about 28
feet by 20. It is provided as usual with an impluinum
and a puteal. The floor is prettily paved with white
tesserae, spotted at intervals with black ; and round the
impluvium is a well-executed pattern, also in black.
The walls glow with admirable paintings, — bright in
colour, powerful in expression. Their subjects, and those
of the adjacent chambers, occur in the following order :—
Marriage of Peleus and Thetis — also called, the Interview
of Thetis and Jupiter ; Parting of Achilles and Briseis ;
painting, much decayed, supposed to represent the De-
parture of Chryseis ; Battle of the Amazons ; Fall of
Icarus ; Venus Anadyomene ; Sacrifice of Iphigenia ;
Leda and Tyndareus ; Thesus and Ariadne ; Cupid.

Whoever may have been the owner of this house, he
must have possessed a poet's taste, to judge from this
selection of Homeric and mythological themes for the
painter's brush.

The subject of the first picture is doubtful. Three
figures are represented ; one, a man of middle age,
seated, and in the act of taking the left arm of the
second, a female, who extends it in no amiable mood.
A winged figure, standing behind her, seems to urge her
to put forward her right hand. At Peleus' feet sit three
children, the offspring, it may be, of his marriage with
Antigone.

AN ANCIENT PICTURE.

'95

The second picture, one of remarkable merit, describes
Achilles delivering his beautiful handmaiden, Briseis, to
the heralds, Talthybius and Eurybates, charged with her
escort to Agamemnon. It is founded on a well-known

ACHILLES DELIVERS BRISEIS TO THE HERALDS OF AJAX.

passage in the first book of the Iliad. The Greeks hav-
ing taken two beautiful captives, Chryseis and Briseis,
allotted the former to Agamemnon, the latter to
Achilles. Chryses, the priest of Apollo, then betook
himself to the Greek camp before Troy, to ransom his

196

ACHILLES AND BRISK IS.

daughter, but was injuriously treated by Agamemnon,
and dismissed with great contumely. Apollo thereupon
revenged his insulted servant by inflicting a pestilence
on the Greeks, who were informed by their soothsayer,
Calchas, that it could only be stayed by the restoration
of Chryseis to her father. The king was accordingly
constrained to deliver up his prize, but he avenged
himself by seizing on Briseis, who had been allotted to
Achilles.

The artist shows us the bust of the illustrious Greek
warrior, who sits in the centre — his eyes glowing with in-
dignation, and his haughty
brow contracted in the effort
to restrain his emotion. His
faithful 'Patrocles, with his
back towards the spectator,
leads in from the left the lovely
Briseis, clothed in a long flow-
ing veil, and endeavouring to
check the gathering tears.
Her face is beautiful, and, not
to dwell upon the arch vivacity
of her eyes, it is evident that " the voluptuous pouting of
her ruby lips " was imagined by the painter as one of her
most charming attributes.

The heralds are placed on the right of Achilles ; and
behind a breast-high drapery, which partitions off the
tent, stand several warriors with golden shields and
plumed helms.

IIK..M) OF ACHILLES (FROM CELL).

" With reluctant .steps they passed
Along the margin of the watery waste,

HOMERIC PICTURES. 197

Till to the tents and ships they came, where lay
The warlike myrmidons. Their chief they found
Sitting beside his tent and dark-ribbed ship.
Achilles marked their coming, not well pleased :
With troubled look, and awe-struck, by the king
They stood, nor dared accost him ; but himself
Divined their errand, and addressed them thus :

' Welcome, ye messengers of gods and men !
Heralds ! approach in safety ; not with you,
But with Atrides is my just offence,
Who for the fair Briseis sends you here.
Go, then, Patroclus, bring the maiden forth,
And give her to their hands.' ....

He spoke : obedient to his friend and chief,
Patroclus led the fair Briseis forth,
And gave her to their hands ; they to the ships
Retraced their steps, and with them the fair girl
Reluctant went." *

The third picture is to the left of the door of the
cubiculum. It is so much defaced that one cannot decide
with any certainty upon its subject, but it may probably
be regarded as a continuation of the Homeric narrative,
and as representing the restoration of Chryseis to her
father.

" Whereat Atrides full of fury rose,
And uttered threats, which he hath now fulfilled.
For Chryses' daughter to her native land
In a swift-sailing ship the keen-eyed Greeks
Have sent, with costly offerings to the god."

Opposite to the picture of Achilles and Briseis was
once a representation of the Fall of Icarus. The waxen
wings with which he had essayed his daring flight had
melted, and he was descending prone into the sea ; there,
however, to be rescued from destruction by a winged sea-
god riding on a dolphin.

The colouring of the Venus Anadyomene is described

* Homer," Iliad," bk. i., translated by Earl of Derby.

198 AN ADMIRABLE MOSAIC.

as reminding the critic in its glow and vividness of the
radiant hues which illumine the canvas of Titian. At
the feet of the goddess lies a dove with a myrtle-branch
in her beak.

The Battle of the Amazons forms the subject of a
broad frieze in a small chamber to the left of the atrium.
The figures are sketched with wonderful freedom — some
in chariots, some on horseback, all armed with bows, as
well as with shields and battle-axes. They are clad in
blue, green, and purple draperies, and depicted in violent
action ; some pursuing the fugitive Greeks, others borne
down by their stronger opponents. " An Amazon, whose
horse is falling, and who, though wounded herself, yet
retains her seat, is a masterpiece of attitude, however
negligently the picture may be touched."*

We now come to the TABLINUM, across which, at
either end, hang rich draperies of Tyrian purple, half
withdrawn. The most notable thing in it is a mosaic
representing the distribution of masks to a chorus.

Sir William Cell describes it as the best and largest
mosaic, deserving the name of a picture, which has yet
been discovered. It represents, on a black ground, an
Ionic colonnade decorated with shields, festoons, and
fillets, in front of which an aged choragus, seated, is
apportioning the proper masks and costumes to his
various performers. Two youths on the left seem already
provided with a scanty savage dress of goat-skins ; a
person near the centre plays the double flute, while his
habit is adjusted by an attendant behind, and another is

* Sir W. Cell, " Pompeiana," Second Series, i. 164.

A POET READING. 199

pulling over the head of a comic actor a species of
shirt adapted to his character.

The dresses are mostly white, but the flute-player's
robe is embroidered with purple ; her garland, flutes, and
mouth-band (capistrurri), with most of the ornaments,
are coloured gold. The masks are painted to imitate
life, and with different hair and complexions, according
to the age and character to be represented.

The tablinum also contains the picture of a poet read-
ing, which originally gave to the house the name which
it now bears. In the foreground sits the poet, reading
from a roll to two auditors, one male, the other female, all
seated. Behind a species of partition appear Apollo and
the Muse; and, on the other side of the painting, a woman
and an old man. Some authorities would identify the
poet with Plautus, because he is represented with a dark
skin, like a slave. Others consider him to be one of the
Athenians captured at Syracuse, who, according to Thucy-
dides, mitigated the harshness of their captivity in conse-
quence of the pleasure they afforded their masters by
repeating the verses of Euripides. And others, with
more probability, conjecture that the painting celebrates
a famous incident in the life of Virgil, who, when reciting
the ^neid to Augustus and Octavia, moved the latter to
tears by the beautiful eulogium on the dead Marcellus.
The only objection to this hypothesis is the nudity of
both the poet and the emperor.*

The walls of this apartment are embellished with an
abundance of fantastic ornament : pillars with human
heads for capitals, swans, goats, lions, and winged harpies

* Sir W. Cell, " Pompeiana," ii. 113.

200 THE STORY OF IPHIGENIA.

The peristyle, which we enter from the tablinum, con-
sists of a small court, anciently blooming with flowers
and foliage, and enclosed by seven Doric columns, whose
lower portion, and the podium on which they stand, were
painted red. The wall beyond is painted blue, to imi-
tate the sky, while below it the tops of trees rise above a
parapet, so as to afford the idea of a rural landscape.
At the left angle stands a small aedicula, or shrine, in
which probably stood a statue, found near the spot, re-
presenting a faun carrying flowers and fruits. A railing
ran between the pillars, to prevent the garden from being
injured by heedless feet.

On the left side are two cubicula, one of which has
been called the library, from a circular painting with
books and implements for writing ; the other contains
two pictures, one of Venus and Cupid fishing, the other
of Ariadne. The latter is seen awakening from the fatal
slumber during which Theseus had deserted her. The
vessel that bears away her fugitive lover is careering
merrily over the azure sea.

At the end of the right side of the colonnade is figured
the Sacrifice of Iphigenia. Does the reader remember
the touching story? Her father, Agamemnon, having
slain unwittingly a favourite deer belonging to Diana,
the soothsayer Calchas declares that the wrath of the
goddess can only be appeased by the sacrifice of Iphi-
genia. She was bound to the altar, and Calchas — as the
Pompeian painting shows — preparing to strike the fatal
blow, when the goddess, relenting, bore her in a cloud to
Tauris, and made her a priestess in her temple. This
was a favourite theme with the painters of antiquity, and

CHAMBER OF LEDA.

201

the reader will recollect that Timanthes.* unable to give
fitting expression to the father's intense agony, solved the
difficulty by covering his head with a cloak. The same
expedient is adopted in the Pompeian picture. Above,
Diana appears in the clouds, with the hind which was to
fill Iphigenia's place as a victim.

SACRIFICE OF IPHIGENIA.

At the side of this fresco we enter a room near twenty
feet square, and of considerable height, which, from a
painting on one of its walls, is called the Triclinium, or
the Chamber of Leda. This design, representing Leda

• Polygnotus of Thasos, who lived in the fifth century B.C., had also painted
the same subject, and Euripides imagined it, with the same circumstances.

202 ART AND THE ANCIENT LIFE.

presenting her infant progeny* to Tyndareus, is one of
the most admirable productions of ancient art, both as
regards its conception, its composition, and its colouring.
Thorwaldsen, the Danish sculptor, regarded it with the
greatest admiration. There is also a fine painting of a
beautiful Cupid, leaning on the knees of Venus, to whom
Adonis seems to be addressing himself; and another
version of the popular story of Ariadne. Here she is
seen asleep ; her head surrounded with a blue nimbus,
or glory, which, in all ancient pictures, distinguishes a
god-like personage, and probably suggested to the early
Christian painters the coronas with which they encircled
their saints. Theseus, who has just quitted her, is in the
act of stepping on board his galley, while Minerva appears
in the air to guide his course and excuse his perfidy.

On the plinth is represented, with much force and
truth, a combat between a lion and two centaurs. The
animal is so accurately delineated, that one might sup-
pose Pompeii to have boasted of a Sir Edwin Landseer !

The flooring is of mosaic, very gracefully arranged,
and the lower part of the wall was gaily decorated with
garlands, sea-horses, and other devices.

Such is a general account of the House of the Tragic
Poet. Could we re-create it, in all the novel splendour
of its pictured walls, its blooming garden, its vases and
statues, and its costly tapestries, the reader would admit
that the ancients welt knew how to please the eye and
charm the refined taste — how to throw over their domes-
tic life the grace, elegance, and attractiveness of art —
how to adorn their houses with things of beauty, which

• Pollux, Helen, and Castor.

HOUSE OF CERES. 203

stimulated the imagination and furnished constant sub.
jects of contemplation to the thoughtful mind.*

On the opposite side of the street to the poet's man-
sion stands the

HOUSE OF CERES,

also called the House of the Bacchantes, and of Zephyrus
and Flora, It received the latter appellation in allusion
to a large picture supposed to represent the marriage of
the goddess of flowers with the " silky, soft Favonius."t
Others, however, have seen in the same design an embo-
diment of the dream of Rhea ; and all that can be safely
said of it is, that it shows a winged figure, conducted by
Cupids, approaching a sleeping maiden on the ground.
Whether the figure be indeed

" The frolic wind that breathes the spring,"

must be left to the spectator's imagination.

From the height and appearance of the walls, it is
conjectured that this house was two stories high. The
atrium was gorgeously decorated, and in the palmy days
of Pompeii must have presented a very radiant aspect.
Its painted walls had been touched by the hand of no
insignificant artist. Here Jupiter sat in his curule chair,
his mighty brow resting on his right hand, while in his
left he held the golden sceptre of majesty. The eagle
crouched at his feet. His head was surrounded with a

* A mass of curious and interesting relics was discovered in this house, in-
cluding necklaces and bracelets of gold, ear-rings of pearls, a ring of onyx, kitchen
utensils, silver and brass coins, a vase for oil, a tripod, glass decanters, iron
hatchets and hammers, fifty-six terra-cotta lamps, and a head of Hermes in
giallo antico. From the nature of these articles, it has been supposed that the
house belonged to a silversmith. If so, " the man had a taste ! "

t Now in the Museum at Naples.

204 HOUSES OF THE FOUNTAINS.

nimbus or glory. The throne and footstool were of gold,
ornamented with precious stones ; the former partly
covered with green cloth. The god's mantle was violet-
hued, and lined with azure. Everywhere colour was
distributed with boldness, but not the less with judgment,
and the fancy of an original artist shone conspicuous in
each fair painting.

A cistern in front of the impluvium was decorated with
coarse mosaics, representing winged sphinxes, a river,
and two large masks.

Returning to what we may call the poet's side of the
street, we pass on to the

HOUSES OF THE FOUNTAINS.

The first of these is of considerable dimensions. You
approach it from the Street of the Mercuries by a hand-
some and lofty portal, and enter an atrium of peculiarly
imposing character. It measures not less than 50 feet
by 40, with the usual arrangement of alas and tablinum.
The peristyle only contains three Corinthian columns of
indifferent design ; but it possesses a fountain, which, if
not of great beauty, is remarkable for its curious con
struction. Thus, it is completely incrusted with a species
of mosaic, consisting of vitrified tesserae of different
colours, but mostly blue. The chief divisions of the
patterns and borders are formed by real shells ; nearly
all the ornaments have an appropriate meaning, such as
aquatic plants and birds. The general outline of the
fountain is a semicircular alcove, surmounted by a pedi-
ment; the water trickling from a mosaic mask, and

THE SMALLER FOVNTAIN. 205

bubbling over a small flight of steps, to be received in a
species of raised basin. In front, a round column pierced
for a pipe seems to have been intended for a jet d'eau.
On each side of the alcove grins a comic mask, hollowed
out, it has been conjectured, to receive lights, which at
night would have a fantastic, nay, even an eery effect.

The House of the Small Fountain is not of inferior in-
terest. The tablinum is enriched with a lively painting
of Cupid milking Goats. The peristyle contains a foun-
tain very similar, both in design and construction, to that
already noticed. It presents the same kind of alcove,
surmounted by a pediment, whose breadth is 7 feet, and
whose height 7 feet 7 inches. The face projects 5 feet
from the wall. Formerly a little bronze fisherman angled
in the piscina, which had in its centre a small pedestal for
a bird spouting water, but both fisherman and bird have
been removed to the Naples Museum. And not only
these, but the caryatid and sleeping fisherman — both in
marble — which formerly ornamented either side of the
alcove. How grateful must have been the murmuring
lapse of the fountain on a hot summer noon, and beneath
a cloudless Italian sky, when the sunshine streamed into
the pillared peristyle, and flung a golden lustre on its
pictured walls ! Alas ! it will never more gleam and
sparkle with iris-like hues ! Never again will its song fall
tenderly on the listening ear !

Two rooms — one called a triclinium; the other an
exedra, or hall for company — open into the portico. The
former is painted in imitation of brick-work ; the latter
enriched with vivid pictures of game and the chase.
Around the peristyle and atrium lie the usual cubicula, or

(190) 14

2o5 A FULLING ESTABLISHMENT.

sleeping-rooms. As there are two staircases, this house
must have had an upper story ; and it should be noted
that it possesses a second entrance, affording access to
the peristyle and private apartments without passing
through the atrium.

At the corner of this mansion, in the Street of Mer-
curies, is the Fountain of Mercury, so called from its
rude sculpture of the head and caduceus of the god. On
an opposite wall the same nefarious deity is represented
running away with a stolen purse ; scarcely an incentive,
one would think, to public morality. But morality was
not very religiously considered in luxurious Pompeii.

We turn from the beautiful to the useful ; from the
gaily adorned houses of Pompeian patricians to the depot
and storehouse of a Pompeian tradesman. Between the
House of the Dramatic Poet and the Houses of the Foun-
tains stands the

FULLONICA,*

or establishment for fulling and scouring cloth. As wool
was the only material employed for dresses at this period,
and from its nature required constant purification, the
fuller's trade was one of great importance. Its different
processes are illustrated with much graphic effect on the
walls of the Fullonica, and may be briefly described.

The primary operation was that of washing, which was
done in vats, the cloth being well worked and trodden
by the fuller's feet, in water mixed with fuller's earth or
some detergent clay.

The cloth was then dried, and afterwards brushed and

* Sir W. Cell, " Pompeiana," i. 189; ii. 122-125.

FULLERS A T WORK.

207

carded, to raise the nap; at first with thin metal cards,
and next with thistles. A plant called teazle is still ex-
tensively cultivated in England for the same purpose.
The fumigating process followed, sulphur being employed ;
and the cloth was afterwards bleached in the sun by throw-
ing water repeatedly upon it, while spread out on gratings.

FULLERS AT WORK.

In one of the pictures a man is seen carrying a bleaching-
frame and a pot to hold sulphur ; the frame has a suspi-
cious resemblance to a modern lady's crinoline ! The
owl sitting upon it would seem to indicate that the
establishment was under the patronage of Minerva, unless
it was the portrait of some favourite bird of the owner.

The last operation was that of pressing. The press
consisted of two upright timbers, united by another
below, and a fourth above. From the upper horizontal
beam two perpendicular screws are brought to bear on
a thick board, which presses down several pieces of cloth.
The screws are turned by horizontal pins or levers, which
are run through them; and the whole is adorned with
three little festoons of drapery.

2o8

COUKT OF THE FULLONICA,

ANCIENT FULLERS.

The court of the Fullonica measures 65 feet by 22 feet
6 inches. In the portico was found a large circular vase
or jar, which had been broken across the centre hori-
zontally, and fastened together in a peculiarly careful man-
ner with metal wire, seeming to indicate that such vases,
though of common red clay — mere pipkins, which an
English peasant-woman would despise — must have borne
a high price at Pompeii.

The west end of the court is entirely filled up with
four large square vats, or tanks, built of solid masonry
and lined with stucco. They measure above 7 feet in
depth, and it required a^ little flight of steps to enable
the fuller to examine them. The water seems to have
passed from one into the other seriatim; and the portico
on the north side retains the vestiges of six or seven

HOUSE OF HOLCONIUS. 209

smaller basins, used for washing lighter articles, or to
hold the different mixtures which prepared the cloth for
receiving a new colour.

At the east end stood a fountain, or jet (Tcau, of pecu-
liarly graceful design.

The next mansion to which I shall conduct the reader is

THE HOUSE OF HOLCONIUS,

situated at the corner of the Street of the Theatres and
the Street of the Holconii, its principal entrance being
in the latter.

It will be needless, however, to enter into a description
of its interior arrangements, which correspond with those
of other Pompeian mansions. It has its peristyle, its
tablinum, its atrium, its cubicula. The floor of the tabli-
num is of pounded brick, cased over with a thin layer of
marble.* Most of the paintings have vanished, but you
may still recognize a sketch of the favourite myth of
Diana wooing Endymion on the Latmian hill, and another
of Leda with three children seated in a nest. Several
skeletons were discovered in various parts of the build-
ing ; notably, one of a female, supposed to be the mis-
tress of the house, who, while endeavouring to escape
with a small casket of her most valued treasures, was
overtaken by the destructive vapour.

The xystus, or flower-garden, which embellished the
pillared peristyle, contained in its centre a small piscina,
or basin, between six and seven feet deep, and a marble
pedestal therein, for the supply of a jet (Teaii. Another
fountain, on the further side of the garden, is of more

* Overbeck, " Pompeji," i. 269, sqq.

2io ITS INTERIOR.

original design ; a boy, sculptured in pure white marble,
holds under one arm a swan, and in the other a vase,
from which the water falls in a mimic cascade down a
small flight of steps. Holconius, I fancy, must have
possessed an ear for music and an eye for colour, since
bright melodious jets of water gushed from several of the
columns at a height of about four feet from the ground, and
fell into a broad channel carried round the flower-beds.
In the piscina-walls may be seen eight iron hooks, which
were probably designed to keep fruit and other articles
cool by suspending them in the fresh cold running water.

The walls of the peristyle are painted black, but re-
lieved by small decorated designs of game and other
articles of food, the lower border being appropriated to
aquatic plants and water-fowl ; and the general effect
being very gay and pleasing. A grajfite was found
scrawled on one side to this effect : "July yth, lard 200
Ibs., garlic 250 bundles;" referring, I suppose, to. the
quantity sold or purchased on that particular day.

One of the eubicula, or bed-chambers, is handsomely
decorated ; the walls, painted in red and yellow, are
covered with architectural designs, and with bold rough
sketches of sea-nymphs riding on the back of Tritons
and ocean-monsters. An exedra, or ante-room, paved
with black and white marble, contains a small central
impluviuni, and several pictures of meritorious execution :
the Three Muses, Bacchus and his "merry crew" dis-
covering Ariadne, Silenus supporting a Hermaphrodite,
and Narcissus contemplating his handsome person in the
mirror of a fountain.

Dr. Dyer, in a recent work, has described the " Bacchus

A POMPE1AN FRESCO.

BACCHUS AND ARIADNE : FRESCO DISCOVERED AT POMPEII.

and Ariadne " very minutely,* and as the subject was a
favourite one with Pompeian artists, I borrow his de-
scription.

* Dr. Dyer, " Ruins of Pompeii," pp. go, 81.

212 BACCHUS AND ARIADNE.

Bacchus, after his arrival at Naxos, finds Ariadne sunk
in a profound slumber. Her face is hid in the pillows ;
over her head stands Sleep, with outspread wings, as if to
take his departure, and bearing in his left hand a torch
reversed, a symbol common to him with his brother
Death. A young faun lifts the sheet, or veil, in which
Ariadne is enveloped, in an attitude expressive of sur-
prise at her beauty, and looks earnestly at the god, as if
to discover what impression it makes on him. Bacchus,
crowned with ivy and berries, clothed in a short tunic
and flowing pallium, having on his legs rich buskins, and
holding in his right hand the thyrsus bound with a fillet,
appears to be approaching slowly and cautiously, for
fear that he should awake the nymph. Meanwhile, a
Bacchante in the background raises her tambourine, and
seems to strike it strongly, as if summoning the Bacchic
troop to descend from the mountains. At the head of
these marches Silenus, also crowned with ivy, and support-
ing his footsteps with a long knotted staff. He is followed
by a Faun playing on the double flute, and by eight
Bacchantes. On a part of the mountain to the left, from
which springs a. tree, another Bacchante and Faun are
looking on the scene below.

Such was the mode of treatment adopted by ancient
artists.

The next Pompeian mansion to which I shall intro-
duce the reader is entitled the

HOUSE OF PANSA,

from the words Pansam. &D., painted in red near the
principal entrance. Mazois, however, very justly re-

HOUSE OF PANS A. 215

marks, that as the name is in the accusative, it is evi-
dently one of those eulogistic inscriptions in honour of
an sedile, or some other high officer, so common in
Pompeii, and is not in itself any evidence that the house
in question belonged to Pansa. It will be convenient,
nevertheless, to preserve the common appellation.

This house occupies an entire insula, or block; in
other words, it is completely surrounded by streets. It
is situated in one of the best situations in the town, close
to the Thermae, and near the Forum. Including the
garden, which occupies a third of the whole length, its
area is about 300 feet by 100 ; part of this, however, ac-
cording to the Pompeian custom, is apportioned to shops
belonging to the owner, and rented by various tradesmen.
Three of these were occupied by bakers.

Internally, we find the mansion contains a vestibule ;
an atrium, with impluvium ; the usual alae, or wings ;
open tablinum ; peristyle ; apartments for visitors on
each side of the atrium ; cecus, or triclinium, for use in
winter ; a large triclinium ; open court ; cubicula ; a large
summer cecus, opening on the garden ; kitchen ; a ser-
vants' hall ; a cabinet ; and two-storied portico. In ar-
rangement and extent, it is the most noticeable house in
Pompeii.*

It would be tedious to describe in detail every apart-
ment, since the reader must now have a reasonably ac-
curate idea of the domestic arrangements of the ancients.
My remarks will therefore be limited to objects of special
interest. The peristyle was unusually spacious, measur-
ing about 65 feet by 50. An arcade ran around it, 16

* Overbeck, " Pompeji," i. 296, sqq. ; "Pompeii "(Lib. Enter. Knowl.),ii. gS,syy.

216 THE DOMESTIC LARES.

feet wide, formed by sixteen Ionic columns of about the
same height. In the kitchen was found a curious reli-
gious painting, illustrative of the worship offered to the
Lares domestiri, under whose protection the provisions,
and all the culinary utensils, were placed. In the centre
is a sacrifice in honour of these deities, who are repre-
sented in the usual form of two immense serpents brood-
ing over an altar. The female in the middle of the sacri-
ficial group holds a cornucopia, and each of the males
holds a small vase in one hand, and a horn in the other.
Their heads are surrounded with a species of nimbus.
Different kinds of food are represented on either side of
the picture ; fish, a group of small birds, a large boar,
an eel, a boar's head, a joint of pork, and a few cakes.
" The execution," says one authority, " is coarse and care-
less in the extreme, yet there is a spirit and freedom of
touch which has hit off the character of the objects re-
presented, and forbids us to impute the negligence dis-
played to incapacity."

The kitchen also contains a stove for stews, a species
of flat ladle pierced with holes, a knife, a strainer, and a
frying-pan with some spherical cavities, which seems to
have been employed in cooking eggs.

Several paintings were found in Pansa's house, of which
the most meritorious is said to have represented Jupiter
wooing Danae in a shower of gold. Skeletons were also
discovered, some of them recognized for females by their
gold ear-rings ; vessels of silver, a vase finely carved with
bas-reliefs, and vessels of bronze, glass, and terra-cotta.
The garden consisted, we are told, of a number of straight
parallel beds, divided by narrow paths which gave access

HOUSE OF SALLUST. 217

to them for horticultural purposes, but with no walks
suitable for exercise, except the portico which adjoins
the house.

Inferior in size to the mansion named after Pansa, but
second to none in grace and beauty of decoration, is the

HOUSE OF SALLUST,

situated in the Street of Herculaneum and the Via Do-
mitiana. It was formerly called the House of Actceon,
from a fresco on the wall of the women's atrium; and
owes its present appellation to an inscription, C. SALLUST.
M. F., painted on the outer wall. It occupies an area
of about forty square yards, and is surrounded on three
sides by streets, the front of the ground floor being occu-
pied by shops. The entrance doorway is flanked by
pilasters with lava capitals, one of which represents
Silenus teaching a young Faun to play the pastoral pipe.
The atrium contains the usual impluvium, and, beyond
it, a small altar for the worship of the household gods.
In the centre of the basin formerly stood a bronze hind,
through whose mouth flowed a stream of water. It bore
a figure of Hercules upon its back. The walls of the
atrium and tablinum are stuccoed in large raised panels
painted of different and strongly-contrasting colours.
The floor was of red cement, inlaid with pieces of white
marble.

Passing through the tablinum, we enter the portico of
the xystus, or garden, " a spot small in extent, but full
of ornament and beauty." The portico, says an exact
authority, is composed of columns, fluted and corded,
the lower portion of them painted blue, without pedes-

2i8 A SUMMER GARDEN.

tals, yet approaching to the Roman rather than to the
Grecian Doric. From the portico we ascend by three
steps to the xystus. Its small extent, not exceeding, in
its greatest dimensions, 70 feet by 20, did not permit
trees, hardly even shrubs, to be planted in it The
centre, therefore, was occupied by a pavement ; and on
each side boxes rilled with earth were ranged for flowers,
while, to make amends for the want of real verdure, the
whole wall opposite the portico is painted with trellises
and fountains, and birds drinking from them ; and above,
with leafy copses tenanted by numerous tribes of the
winged race.

In one corner is situated a summer triclinium, ele-
gantly decorated, and fitted up with couches and a circular
table of marble. Overhead was a trellised roof, which
was probably adorned with the vine and other climbing
plants. The walls are gaily painted in panel, after the
prevailing fashion, and with a whimsical frieze above,
which consisted of all kinds of table dainties, but has
almost entirely disappeared. In front is a small foun-
tain, or, rather, jet of water. On the whole, this retreat,
in the radiance of an Italian summer-noon, must have
been peculiarly grateful, and have conduced to " slum-
ber sweet, and sweeter dreams."

In the other corner of the garden is a small furnace,
either intended for a bath, or to keep water constantly
hot for the use of those who preferred their potations
warm.

On the right of the atrium is a venereum, carefully
secluded, and consisting of a small court, surrounded by
a portico of octagonal columns, a sacrarium dedicated

HOUSE OF THE DIOSCURI. 219

to Diana, two cabinets with glazed windows, a tricli-
nium probably provided with curtains, a kitchen, a
water-closet, and a staircase leading to the terrace above
the portico. The whole is elegantly decorated with
gold-coloured ornament, brilliantly tinted columns, and
paintings of Mars, Venus, and Cupid, and of Actaeon
devoured by his dogs for intruding upon the privacy
of Diana. In the adjoining lane four skeletons were
found, apparently a female attended by three slaves :
beside her lay a round plate of silver, together with
several golden rings set with engraved stones, two
ear-rings, five gold bracelets, and thirty-two pieces of
money. Probably she was the fair lady to whom this
portion of the house of Sallust was peculiarly appro-
priated.

The next mansion of special interest is the

HOUSE OF THE DIOSCURI,

also known as that of the Quaestor, which, from its ele-
gance and size, must unquestionably have belonged to
some person of wealth and rank.

It consists of three distinct divisions, or rather of two
houses connected by a peristyle. Externally as well as
internally it is characterized by the utmost minuteness
and finish of ornament. The walls are painted in red
panels, and relieved by cornices of stucco. At the en-
trance doorway is a bas-relief of Mercury running away
with a purse. Paintings of the Dioscuri — Castor and
Pollux — adorn the sides of the vestibule. The atrium,
which measures about 40 feet by 31, is paved with opus
signatum of a reddish hue, derived from the pounded

COURT AND COLONNADE.

tiles or pottery of which, added to fragments of marble,
it was composed.* Here the walls are coloured red and
yellow, and embellished with vivid paintings of ara-
besques, landscapes, and mythic subjects. An open
court, surrounded by a colonnade, which varies from

8 to 10 feet in
width, appears to
have contained a
flower-garden;
and on the eastern
side a large and
deep piscina, or
pond, in whose
centre stood a co-
lumn, supporting
some kind of Tri-
ton or Nymph for
the supply of wa-
ter. The entire
area of the court
was about 80 palms
by 47 ; and as no
building on the
south or western
sides can ever
have existed to
shut out the
JUPITER AND HIS KAGLK. warmth and radi-

ance of the sun, the whole must have constantly worn a
bright, cheerful, and stimulating aspect, while the por-

» Sir W. Cell, " Pompeiana," ii. 16.

TRICLINIUM AND PERISTYLE. 221

tico afforded shade when shade was considered de-
sirable.

On the eastern side opened the great triclinium, or
principal banqueting-room, whose walls were enriched
with laminae .of rare marbles. These were probably car-
ried off by the owner, some time after the eruption. The
principal paintings found here were, — Perseus and An-
dromeda ; Bacchus and a Faun ; Medea contemplating
the murder of her two children, Mennerus and Pheres ;
a Dwarf leading an Ape ; Hymen with his torch ; and a
magnificent picture of Jupiter, the "father of gods and
men," enthroned in his curule chair, with the imperial
eagle at his side.

A third court, or peristyle, enriched by twelve Doric
columns, painted red and white, and supporting a rich
entablature, contained a compluvium and fountain, — the
latter issuing from a species of flower in marble, on which
frogs and lizards are seen disporting. The walls of this
splendid apartment glowed with fanciful designs in the
most vivid colours.

In the ala, or wing, attached to this third peristyle,
were discovered two very large and richly ornamented
wooden chests, lined inside with brass, bound with iron,
and provided with handles and locks of bronze. It
would appear that the survivors of the fatal eruption had
endeavoured to carry off the treasure which these en-
closed, and probably succeeded, except where a few coins
slipped between the bottom bars. This, indeed, would
have been no protection to the coins, had not the exca-
vators fallen into a trifling error, and in working from
above, descended into a chamber behind the chests ; so

(190) 15

222

PICTURES IN THE CUBICULA.

that it became necessary for them to exhaust the money
from these receptacles through a hole perforated in the
partition-wall.

The adjoining cubicula, or cedes dottiest iae — their uses
are uncertain — contain various pictures. In one is a
sketch of Cupid and a youth sitting by the edge of a
stream ; a Bacchante ; a dancing-girl carrying a garland ;
and Diana descending from the skies to woo Endy-
mion.

These are the principal curiosities discovered in the
House of the Quaestor. Adjoining it stands the

THE RED LATTICE. 223

HOUSE OF THE CENTAUR,

also called the House of Apollo, and the House of
Meleager and Atalanta, whose principal features are a
Corinthian atrium ; a triclinium opening on a garden j
the venereum ; some subterranean cellars ; and numerous
fine mosaics and paintings — notably one of Meleager and
Atalanta — which are now preserved in the Neapolitan
Museum.

I shall now glance very briefly, for my limits will not
admit of detailed description, at those other houses in
Pompeii which have been distinguished by particular
appellations, and which present some point of interest.
For fuller information I may refer my readers to the
elaborate work of Overbeck.

In the STREET OF HERCULANEUM : —

The Inn of Albinus, also, from an inscription on the
walls, named of Julius Polybius, should be noticed.
Here, on the door-posts, we see those time-honoured
chequers which figure on the sign of so many English inns.
From their colour — red — and their similarity to a lattice,
they were corruptly called the Red Lattice, a word fre-
quently used by early English writers to signify an ale-
house. Thus, the dramatist Marston says, " As well
known by my wit, as an ale-house by a red lattice ;" and
in an old ballad (1656) we read : —

" The tap-house fits them for a jail,
The jail to the gibbet sends them without fail ;
For those that through a lattice sang of late,
You oft find crying through an iron grate." *

* Brand, " Popular Antiquities, ii. 353.

224 SUNDRY POMPEIAN HOUSES.

The chequers probably indicated that some game was
played in the tavern, or hostelry, resembling our modern
" draughts."

House of the Vestals* — This is a double house, with an
atrium, a triclinium, and other apartments, once richly
decorated with paintings and mosaics, but now very bare
and desolate. In a room called the lararium, with three
recesses, stands an altar, whereon the sacred fire is sup-
posed to have been cherished by the Vestal Virgins.t

House of the Chirurgeon. — The forty surgical instru-
ments found here have been removed to the Museum at
Naples.

The Poiiderarium, Custom, or Weighing-House. — Nu-
merous balances and weights were discovered in this
building; one with the inscription, "C PON TAL" (100
talents); others lettered "Erne et Habetis" (Buy and
thou shalt have).

Soap Factory. — This contained the usual materials and
implements for soap-making.

Tavern of Phoebus. — Here were found the skeletons of
a man and two horses, with an inscription purporting
that " Phoebus and his customers request the patronage
of M. Holconius Priscus and C. Gaulus Rufus, the Du-
umvirs."

Public Bakehouse, with the usual adjuncts.

Blacksmiths Shop.

House of Julius Polybiu,s, with three stories.

• So named by Sir W. Cell.

t " In this secret and sacred place the most solemn and memorable days of
the family were spent in rejoicing: and here, on birth-days, sacrifices were
offered to Juno, or the Genius, as the protector of the new-bom chiid." —

DESCRIPTION CONTINUED. 22$

STREET OF NARCISSUS : —

This contains the House of 'the Dancing Girls; so named
from a picture of four Bacchanals.

House of Narcissus, or House of Apollo. — Called the
former, from an elegant picture of Narcissus ; and the
latter, from a bronze statue of the god. Numerous sur-
gical instruments have been discovered here.

STREET OF MODESTUS : —

House of the Painted Columns; House of Neptune; House
of Flowers ; House of Modestiis, so named from an in-
scription in red on the walls of the opposite house ;
House of Pansa (see p. 212).

STREET OF LA FULLONICA : —

House of Apollo, excavated in 1838. — Here were
found two fine mosaics, representing the quarrel between
Achilles and Agamemnon, and Achilles at the Court of
Lycomedes ; several admirably-executed bronzes ; ex-
quisitely-designed paintings of Apollo, Juno, and Venus ;
and other eloquent evidences of the wealth and taste of
the former owner.

H-^use of Adonis, excavated in 1836; so named from
a fresco of Adonis, when wounded by the wild boar,
receiving the consolations of Venus. The " pictured
walls" also set forth the fable of H.ermaphroditus and the
nymph Salmacis.

Houses of the Fountains, the Fullonica, House of the
Tragic Poet. — Already described (pp. 190-209).

STREET OF THE MERCURIES : —
House of Inachus and To. •

226

HOUSE OF THE NEREIDS.

ACHILLES AT THE COURT OF LVCOMEDES.

House of the Nereids, also called House of Mclcager. The
front is faced with a plain white stucco, resting on a
plinth coloured in imitation of gray marble. The walls

ALLEGORICAL DESIGNS.

227

of the vestibule exhibit three broad bands of colour : the
lower, black ; the centre, red ; the upper, white. The
black is ornamented with caryatides, bearing javelins,
which suspend rich festoons of fruit and flowers; the
red, with bright arabesques of an architectural character,
intermingled with Bacchantes ; and the white, with
other groups of caryatides, architectural ornament, and
priestesses. Very beautiful and fantastic is the general
appearance of the atrium, with its marble fountain, marble
baths, mosaic pave-
ment, and painted
walls. A dark-red
plinth surrounds the
room, and repre-
sents lively Nereids
disporting with grim
sea-lions and other
ocean - monsters ;
and the pictures
embody several of
those fables with
which Ovid has
made every school-
boy familiar: Vul-
can forging armour
for ^neas, Paris
and Helen, Daeda-
lus and Pasiphae.*
It is a chamber for a poet, where he might endlessly
" chew the cud" of pleasant fancies.

If the poet were content with the atrium, show me

* "Pompeii" (Library of Entertaining Knowledge), ii 261, 262.

ALLEGORICAL FIGURE.

228 A MINIATURE CASCADE.

the artist that would not be well pleased with the peri-
style, one of the most magnificent and most capacious
apartments in Pompeii. The portico consists of twenty-
four columns, whose upper portion is painted white, the
lower red. The impluvium, which once bloomed with
flowering plants and evergreens, is surrounded by a
channel of stone, to conduct the rain-water into the re-
servoir. A graceful reservoir, let me tell you ! For it is
edged with a marble coping, and its stucco lining is
painted of an intensely vivid azure. It was anciently fed
with a double supply : from a central column, and from
a fountain at the further end, which poured its waters in
a miniature cascade down a flight of eight little steps. A
square basin, communicating with the reservoir, probably
served for a fish-pond, where Lalage or Nicera might
feed her gold and silver fish. The walls are alive, so to
speak, with frolicsome Nereids — surely the owner was
captain of some " stately argosy !" — and of their numerous
paintings, seventeen still retain much of their original
freshness.

From the peristyle the stranger passes into another
large apartment — a room without a name. It contains
two tiers of columns, one above the other ; the upper
surrounded by a gallery, something like the arcade and
clerestory of a Gothic church. The capitals of these
columns are heavily ornamented in a semi-Corinthian
style. Walls, columns, and pictures are all monochrome
— that is, painted in one colour, the colour being yellow,
perhaps to imitate gold." The only subjects now dis-
cernible are, Theseus rescuing Ariadne from the Mino-
taur, and Tiresias metamorphosed into a woman.

STREET OF THE FAUN. 229

Adjoining is another large chamber, which seems to
have been undergoing repair at the time of the eruption ;
and beyond this the great triclinium, a room of magni-
ficent dimensions and superb decorations. Over the
smaller apartments it is unnecessary to linger ; they are
not unworthy, however, of this most superb mansion.

House of the Centaur, House of the Dioscuri, already
described. There are also to be seen in this street the
House of the Five Skeletons, House of Amymone and Nep-
tune (or the Anchor), and House of Flora an

STREET OF THE FAUN : —

In this street there are but two houses worth notice :
the House of the Labyrinth, so named from a mosaic
pavement of admirable workmanship, which illustrates
the old fable of Theseus and the Minotaur ; and the
House of the Faun, which contains a beautiful bronze
statuette of a Dancing Faun, and a large mosaic of the
Battle of the Granicus. This latter mansion is remark-
able for its Egyptian mosaics, nearly all of them bearing
especial reference to the worship of Osiris. The furni-
ture and utensils found here were of unusual richness ;
and the gems, rings, bracelets, necklaces, were scarcely
less eloquent witnesses to the wealth and refinement of
their owners.

The six streets which we have thus rapidly traversed
all run in one direction — namely, from north to south, or
from the City Walls to the Street of the Baths.

The Street of the Baths lies north-west and south-east,

230 STREET OF THE BATHS.

cutting through the city in nearly a straight line, from the
junction of the Street of Herculaneum to the Gate of Isis,
on the Nola Road, and bisected about midway by the
Street of Stabise. A portion of it is called the Street of
Fortune, but for the convenience of the reader we shall
adhere to one general appellation—

THE STREET OF THE BATHS.

Here, at the junction of the street with a second Street
of Fortune (running towards the Forum), we find the re-
mains of a Triumphal Arch and Fountain. In this
vicinity are situated the Temple of Fortune and the older
Thermag (see pp. 97, 154).

Pursuing our route, we may notice the ruins of several
shops, one of an ironmonger, and another belonging to
a statuary ; the House of the Chase, so called from one of
its paintings ; the House of the Bronze Figures, where
several two-headed busts of Hermes, in bronze, were
discovered ; the House of the Black Walls, in one of
whose chambers a variety of graceful ornament is de-
picted on a black ground ; the House of the Figured Capi-
tals— those of the pilasters at the entrance doorway being
sculptured with Fauns and Bacchantes; the House of the
Grand Duke of Tuscany (excavated in 1832), where the
visitor regards with admiration a fine representation of
the old fable of Amphion and Dirce ; and the House of
Ariadne, whose more interesting objects are its pictures
of Ariadne, Galatea, and the Love-Merchant — the latter,
an old man with a cage'of Cupids, one of whom he offers
for sale to two young maidens attracted by the novelty of
his wares.

STREET OF STABLE. 231

In a street called the Vico Storto, which branches off
on the right, are situated several houses of minor in-
terest.

Continuing our route towards the Nola Gate, we pass
a series of shops and houses which have been but par-
tially excavated.

We shall now retrace our steps a few hundred yards,
and turn into the

STREET OF STABILE.

Beginning at the Stabiae Gate, we see on our right the
Odeum, the Great Theatre, and the so-called Barracks ;
on our left, the House of Iphigenia, so named from a
painting discovered in it which represents Orestes and
Pylades brought as prisoners into the presence of Aga-
memnon's daughter. In this direction the excavations
of the buried city are, at present, being conducted. A
road leading towards the Amphitheatre passes the

Villa of Julia Felix, excavated in 1754-55, but covered
up again. An inscription was found here purporting
that the owner, Julia Felix, was willing to let for a term
of five years, a bath, a venereum, and ninety shops with
terraces and upper chambers.

In the Street of Stabise we find :

The House of Lucretius > or delle Sonatrid, excavated in
1867, a mansion remarkable for its dimensions and the
elegance of its decorations. Its name has been satis-
factorily ascertained from a painting, now in the Naples
Museum, which introduced a scroll or letter addressed to
" M. Lucretio Flam. Martis Decurioni Pompei (io) " —
that is, to Marcus Lucretius, Priest of Mars, and Decu-

232 A STATUARY'S WORKSHOP.

rion of Pompeii* — as also a stylus and ink-bottle. The
atrium has a pavement of white mosaic. The walls are
painted, the lower part in imitation of vari-coloured
marbles ; the upper in blue, relieved with fanciful orna-
ment. A /arariutn, or shrine of the Lares, stands on the
right of the entrance. The tablinum, raised one step
above the level of the atrium, is also paved with white
marble mosaic, and in the centre with a slab of giallo
antico. The walls are decorated with architectural de-
signs ; the ceiling (of stucco) with panels in colours and
gilt rosettes. In the peristyle, which is six or seven
feet higher than the tablinum, a curious alcove-fountain
is enriched with mosaics, paintings, shell-work, and a
small marble image of Silenus. On his left the water
issues from a sort of leather bottle, and falls into a
square stone channel, which conducts it into a circular
basin in the middle of the court. This basin, about
seven feet in diameter and two feet in depth, has in its
centre a hollow pedestal, which gives room forajet-d'eau.
On each side stands a double figure : one representing a
Faun and a Bacchante, the other Ariadne and Bacchus.
Numerous sculptures are scattered around, and the basin
is ornamented with figures of ducks, cows, ibises, and the
like, so that the scene may not unjustly be compared to
a statuary's yard in the Marylebone Road ! But as the
house appears to have been undergoing repair at the time
of the eruption, it is possible the owner collected his
treasures in this particular apartment, as safest from acci-
dental injury.

The articles discovered here included vases, cande-

* Overbeck. " Pompeii "

HOUSE OF CORNELIUS RUFUS. 233

labra, surgical instruments, glass bottles shaped like
animals, bronze coins, theatrical pictures of a tragic and
comic character, bronze ornaments, culinary vessels in
bronze, and a four-wheeled waggon.

Near what are called the New Thermae stands a re-
cently-excavated house, that of JDiadumenus, chiefly
remarkable for its portico, its elegant atrium, and hand-
some lararium.

Immediately in front of the Baths is the

House of C. Cornelius Rufus, discovered in 1861, con-
taining a spacious and finely decorated atrium, with a
central impluvium, and a table of marble supported by
lions ; a peristyle, surrounded by Doric columns ; cubi-
cula, and other apartments, embellished with frescoes of
unusual merit ; several bronzes, and a well-executed bust
of the owner of the house, inscribed with his name.

The recent excavations in this quarter have revealed
several interesting houses : one, which seems to have
been a species of tavern, is known, from a painting on
the outer wall, as the Elephant Inn ;* a second, dis-
tinguished by its handsome triclinium, contains a noble
specimen of the ancient painters — " Hercules, while
overcome by wine, is robbed of his arms by Cupids;"
the third, a baker's shop, possesses an oven in which
eighty -three loaves of bread were found half-baked ;
and the fourth, a handsome private mansion, is remark-
able for its marble fountain and its mythological paintings.

* A sign, or tablet, records that one Sitticio had recently restored the tavern,
and offers travellers a triclinium with three beds, and every comfort.
HOSPITVM . HIC . LOCATVR.
TRICLINIVM . CVM. TRIBVS . LECTIS
SIT . COMM . . . (ET COMMODA).

234 FINAL NOTES ON POMPEIAN STREETS.

The only streets which now remain to be noticed are
those of the Augustals, of the Dii Consentes, and the
Street of Abundance.

In the former are situated the House of Venus and
Mars; the House of Ganymede; the House of tJie King of
Prussia, excavated in 1822 ; and the House of Queen
Adelaide, opened in the presence of the late Queen-
Dowager in 1838.

In the Street of the Dii Consentes the visitor's atten-
tion is directed to the House of Hero and Leander, the
House of Apollo and Coronis, and the House of Adonis,
the latter containing some remarkable pictures, especi-
ally a caricature sketch of a painter's studio.

Lastly, in the Street of Abundance, we meet with
several handsome shops, the remains of two fountains,
the House of the Wild Boar (so called from a mosaic in
the prothyrum), the House of the Physician (where seventy
surgical instruments and the apparatus for pill-making
and ointment-making were discovered), the House of the
Graces, and the House of the Emperor Francis II. None
of these require a detailed notice, as the articles of in-
terest which they formerly contained have been removed
to the Museum at Naples.

IX.

Combs at |)0mpen.

' There, while the fire lies smouldering on the ground,
My bones, the all of me, can then be found.
Arrayed in mourning robes, the sorrowing pair
Shall gather all around with pious care ;
With ruddy wine the relics sprinkle o'er,
And snowy milk on them collected pour.
Then with fair linen cloths the moisture dry,
Inurned in some cold marble tomb to lie.
With them inclose the spices, sweets, and gums,
And all that from the rich Arabia comes,
And what Assyria's wealthy confines send,
And tears, sad offering, to my memory lend."

TIBULLUS, Eleg. iii. 2-17.

[HE interment of the dead was celebrated by
the Romans with peculiar pomp. It formed,
indeed, an important part of their religion, for
it was their belief that if the body remained
unburied, the soul wandered, forlorn and desolate, through
the sorrowful lapse of a hundred years, on the hither
side of the Styx, unable to obtain admission to its final
resting-place. The survivors, therefore, were necessarily
anxious that their deceased kinsmen or friends should
receive the homage of decent sepulture. So after the
corpse had been duly washed and dressed, and seven
days of watching and wailing had passed by, it was
borne in solemn procession, attended by a long array

(190) 1 6

238 ROMAN INTERMENTS.

of mourners, musicians, and stage-mimes ; by numerous
vehicles containing waxen masks of its ancestors, by
the slaves whom the will of the departed had eman-
cipated, by a weeping train of the nearest relations,
to the appointed place of burial.* This, by the Roman
law, was almost invariably without the city, and generally
near a public highway. Here, if the family possessed a
patrimonial tomb, the dead was laid within it; or else
within the sepulchre which, during his life, he would
have constructed for the purpose. The poor were
interred in public cemeteries, called puticuli, from the
trenches (puteis) ready excavated to receive bodies. In
most cases the corpse was burned — for the practice of
incremation prevailed among the Romans from the first
century before Christ until the establishment of Chris-
tianity— at the place of burial, which was then named
bustum (as if from buro, uro, comburo, to burn). The
funeral pile (rogus) was built of rough wood, unpolished
by the axe. Pitch was used to stimulate the flames ;
and cypress, to overpower with its pungent odours the
exhalations from the burning body. As the combus-
tion proceeded, the bystanders cast various offerings
into the flames; the robes, arms, treasures, and favourite
animals of the deceased^ and the precious oils and
unguents of the East.

When reduced to ashes, these were quenched with
wine, and carefully deposited in an urn of marble, bronze,
silver, or terra-cotta. The presiding priest then
sprinkled the mourning"crowd three times with a branch

* See Bekker's " Callus," for a minute account of the funeral ceremonies of
, the Romans ; also, article funas in Dr. Smith's "Dictionary of Antiquities."

FUNERAL KITES. 24,1

of olive or laurel dipped in water, as a sign of purifica-
tion, and gave the word, I licet (Ire licet), Depart I And
the procession, uttering their last farewell with the cry of
Vale or Salve, returned to their several abodes.

The urn was committed to the tomb on the following
day. There were two sorts of tombs ; which may
roughly be designated family, and private tombs. To
the former the ashes of the freed slaves of the family
were frequently admitted. On the ninth day after death,
the funeral feasts (novemdialia) were celebrated ; and the
dead were also honoured at intervals with sacrifices
(inferia) offered to their manes. The inferiae consisted
principally of libations of milk, wine, or blood, the smell
of which was supposed to be peculiarly acceptable to
their ghosts. The tomb was likewise crowned with gar-
lands of flowers — of roses, lilies, myrtle, and the amar-
anth— a custom which has descended to our own time.

" Full canisters of fragrant lilies bring,
Mixed with the purple roses of the spring ;
Let me with funeral flowers his body strew, —
This gift, which parents to their children owe,
This unavailing gift, at least I may bestow." — VIKGIL.

At Pompeii the tombs are situated on either side of
the road that leads from the Herculaneum Gate towards
the Torre dell' Annunziata, in the Pagus Augustus Felix,
an aristocratic suburb of the city. Commencing our
progress at what I may term the further end, the first
sepulchral monument we meet with is the

Cenotaph of Diomedes, situated opposite the villa which
is supposed to have belonged to the same owner. It is
a solid building of rubble-work, faced with stucco, and

242 TOMB OF DIOMEDES.

not unlike a small temple in appearance.* It is about
nine feet broad and twelve fee: high, with a pilaster at
either side supporting a pediment. Under the pediment
you may read the following inscription :• -

M . ARRIVS . | . I. . DIOMEUES

SIBI . SV1S . MEMORISE
MAGISTER . PAG . AUG . FELIX . SVBVRB.

Which is Englished thus : —

Marcus Arrius Diomedes, freedman of lulia (?), chief magistrate of the
suburb Augustus Felix, [erected this building] to the memory of himself
and family.

Beneath are sculptured the fasces, the emblems of
magisterial authority, but reversed, in conformity with the
usages of mourning. On the left is a wall which sepa-
rates the principal tomb from two funereal cippi with
hemispheres, the hinder part of each carved in imitation
of the human hair ; one erected to Arria, the daughter
of Diomedes, and the other to Arrius his son. An
inscription under the wall — Arriae . M . F(iliae) . Dio-
medes . L . Sibi . Svis — shows that they belonged to the
same family. Close to the platform, in a small semi-
circular niche, is the cippus of a child, Velasius Gratus,
setat. 12 ; and near it moulder in decay the tombs of

Salvius, a child of five years old, and of Servilia.

•

Tomb of Cents and Labeo: an oblong building, the
sides ornamented with pilasters, which formerly supported
an entablature, crowned. by statues. Of these only the
fragments remain. The front exhibits the ruins of two
bas-reliefs, which we may suppose to have contained

* Overbeck, " Pompeji," ii. 23.

TOMB OF THE LIBELLM. 243

portraits of the duumvirs, Caius Cenis and Lucius
Labeo, to whom the tomb was erected by their freedman
Menomachus.

Tomb of the Libella. — This is a solid building of blocks
of travertin, in form resembling the pedestal of a column ;
base about twelve feet square, height sixteen feet. It has
a moulding and cornice, and the following inscription : —

M . ALLEIO . LVCCIO . LIBELUE . PATRI .
II . VIR . PR^FECTO . QVINQ . ET . M . ALLEIO . LIBELI^E . F .
DECVRIONI . VIXIT . ANNIS . XVII . LOCVS . MONVMENTI
PVBLICE . DATVS . EST . ALLEIA . M . F . DECIMILLA . SACERDOS .
PVBLICA . CERERIS . FACIENDVM . CVRAVIT.. VIRO . ET . FILIO.

[To M. Alleius Luccius Libella, the father, /Edile, Duumvir,* Quinquen-
nia], and Prefect ; and M. Alleius Libella, his son, Decurion, who lived
seventeen years, was assigned the site of this monument at the public
expense. Alleia Decimilla, daughter of Marcus, Public Priestess of
Ceres, erected it to her husband and son.]

Cicero in one of his letters informs a friend who had
requested his interest in obtaining a decurionship at
Pompeii, that it was easier to become a Roman consul
than a Pompeian decurion.t The reply may have been
partly intended in jest, but yet we must infer that the post
of decurion in the gay Campanian city was one of great
honour, and hence that the Libellae, one of whom
was a duumvir, and the other a decurion in his seven-
teenth year, belonged to a wealthy and influential family.

Tomb with the Marble Door (Colla port a marmorea). —
At the junction of the two roads stands a closed tomb,

* The offices of Duumvir and Decurion corresponded to those of the Roman
Consul and Senators. — " Pompeii" (Lib. Ent. Knowl.), ii. 26
Overbeck, " Pompeji," ii. 26.

244 THE FUNERAL TRICLINIUM.

built of small pieces of tufa, laid sometimes horizontally
and sometimes diamond-wise (opus reticulatuni). Its
entrance, about four feet high, is closed by a marble
door, which turns upon bronze pivots let into sockets of
the same metal. The interior consists of a small chamber
lighted by a small window in the roof. Around it runs
a stone ledge, on which, as well as in certain vaulted
niches, were deposited the urns or vases containing the
ashes of the dead. There were also several bronze
lamps, used, I conjecture, to light up the dark and
silent sepulchre, when the kinsmen of the deceased
visited it to perform their sacrificial rites (inferice). A
small square enclosure, just beyond this tomb, is sup-
posed to have been an ustrinum, or place for burning
dead bodies.

Crossing to the other side of the road, we perceive
the Funeral Triclinium (Triclinium fur die Leichenmahle),
an enclosed area of irregular figure, about twenty feet
long, stuccoed, and unadorned except by a low pedi-
ment and cornice. Enter, — the doorway is low, — enter,
and you find yourself within an unroofed chamber, whose
walls are gaily embellished with paintings of birds and
flowers. Before you stands a stone triclinium, with a
massive pedestal in the centre for a table, and a round
pillar immediately in advance of it. Here was celebrated
the silicernium, or funeral feast, which completed the
honours paid to the dead by their survivors, and which
an ungrateful or disappointed heir occasionally withheld.
On the round column probably stood the urn or vase
which contained the ashes of the departed. As no other

N&VOLEIA TYCHE. 245

triclinium has been discovered in Pompeii, it seems pro-
bable that this one was built for the general accommoda-
tion, and perhaps let out to hire.*

Tomb of Ncevoleia Tyche and Munatius Faustus. — A
family tomb, consisting of a square building surrounded
by a wall. Within the enclosure is a sepulchral chamber,
surmounted by a marble cippus, richly ornamented, and
raised on two steps. The front is occupied by a bas-
relief, and by the following inscription : —

N^EVOLEIA . I . LIB . TYCHE . SIBI . ET

C . MVNATIO . FAUSTO . AVG . ET . PAGANO

CVI . DECURIONES . CONSENSV . POPVLI

BISELLIVM . OB . MERITA . EIVS . DECREVERVNT .

HOC . MONIMENTVM . N^IVOLEIA . TYCHE . LIBERTIS . SVIS .

LIBERTATVSQ . ET . C . MVNATI . FAUSTI . VIVA . FECIT .

[Naevoleia Tyche, freedwoman of Julia Tyche, to herself and to Caius
Munatius Faustus, Augustal, and chief magistrate of the suburb, to
whom the Decurions, with the consent of the people, have granted the
bisellium in acknowledgment of his merits. Naevoleia Tyche erected
this monument in her lifetime for her freedmen and women, and for
those of C. Munatius Faustus.]

The bas-relief exhibits a portrait of Naevoleia, and in
the lower portion, a funeral group offering sacrifice, or
the dedication of the tomb. On one side are the munici-
pal magistrates, on the other the family of Naevoleia and
Faustus, each member carrying a vase or bowl ; in the
centre, a low altar, upon which a youth is depositing
some sacrificial cake, and by it a low semicircular cippus
representing the tomb.

* An inscription on the central pedestal, however, records the erection of the
triclinium to Vibrius Saturninus by his freedman Callistus.

246 TOMB OF N&VOLEIA.

Each side of the tomb is enriched with a bas-relief.
One of them represents the bisellium, or seat of honour
in the theatre, appropriated to Munatius by decree of the
Decurions ; the other, a ship entering port — in allusion
either to the pursuits of the said Munatius, or, allegori-
cally, to the safe arrival of the barque of the soul in the
tranquil haven of the grave.

The ship itself has a raised deck, a figure-head of
Minerva, and a swan's neck at the stern supporting a
flag-staff ; another flag floats from the mast-head. The
mast has a long yard, which carries a square sail ; two
boys on the yard are furling the sail, while a third who
has been rendering assistance aloft descends by a rope,
a fourth is climbing the shrouds, and a man on deck
clews up the canvas. At the helm sits the master —
probably Munatius himself — and directs their move-
ments.

In the interior of the chamber, and on the stone bench
surrounding it, several cinerary urns were discovered, as
well as some lamps, and three urns of glass, which con-
tained burnt bones saturated in a mixture of water, wine,
and oil — the last libation probably made by the survivors.
A small niche in the wall of the enclosure contains a
cippus, or funeral column, engraved with the name of Caius
Munatius Atimetus, who died at the age of fifty-seven.

I think we need not tarry at

TJie Tomb of the Istacidian Family — a small plot of
ground, about fifteen feet square, containing no monu-
ments, but simply three cippi, inscribed to Istacidius
Helenus, Istacidius Januarius, and to Istacidia Scapidia

A POMPEIAN CENOTAPH. 247

and Mesonia Satulla.* But the next erection commands
our notice by its architectural pretensions.

Cenotaph of C. Calventius Quietus. — Within a court
about twenty-one feet square, rises a podium, or base-
ment, of three steps, on which a square marble altar-
monument is placed, adorned with small square pin-
nacles called acroteria. These acroteria are enriched
with bas-reliefs, now sadly dilapidated, of Fame and
Victory, of Theseus, of CEdipus solving the riddle of the
Sphinx, and of the Funeral Pile, on which the remains of
Quietus were consumed. The cenotaph is further adorned
with richly-carved garlands of oak-leaves, bound with
fillets ; the cornice and mouldings merit praise both for
design and execution. From the sculpture of a bisellium,
or seat of honour, on the front, we know that the sepulchre
before us is that of an Augustal, and our inference is
confirmed by the inscription above it : —

C . CALVENTIO . QVIETO

AVGVSTALI

HVIC . OB . MVNIFICENT . DECVRIONVM

DECRETO . ET . POPVLI . CONSENSV . BISELLII .

HONOR DATVS . EST .

[To Caius Calventius Quietus, Augustal. To him, on account of his public
spirit, the honour of the Bisellium was decreed by the Decurions, with
the consent of the people.]

An empty space intervenes between this and the next
tomb — the so-called Round Tomb; consisting of a short
circular tower on a square basis, and surrounded by a
wall, which is adorned with acroteria, and the acroteria

* Overbeck, " Pompeji.

248 A STKOLL AMONG THE TOMBS

with bas-reliefs. One of these represents a female with a
patera and garland in her hand in the act of offering some
fruits upon an altar ; another, a young mother in a flow-
ing Greek robe depositing a funereal fillet on her dead
child. As its skeleton seems to rest on a pile of stones,
Mazois conjectures that the child perished in the earth-
quake.* The sepulchral chamber contains three niches
with sepulchral vases, two of which were empty when
discovered ; and the walls and vaulted roof are enriched
with arabesques, swans, and peacocks.

Tomb of Patricius Scaurus: so called from an inscrip-
tion found in the vicinity, but which Overbeck does not
consider to have belonged to the tomb. This is a stately
monument — a square cippus of brick resting on three
steps, which are raised upon a square basement serving
as a sepulchral chamber. The basement and the steps
were formerly ornamented with bas-relieis of gladatorial
subjects, which have been already described (see pp. 114,
115).

Tomb of Tyche: a sepulchral enclosure with a cippus,
belonging, as an inscription records, to Tyche, Venerea
of Julia, daughter of Augustus. Beneath it is a colum-
barium, with fourteen niches.

Passing by the so-called. Suburban Inn — the Tomb of
tlu Glass Amphora (Tomba del Vasa di vetro blu), a
square basement-chamber, in which was found a singularly
graceful amphora of blue glass with white figures in
relief— the Villa of Cicero, remarkable for its fine paint-

* Mazois, " Lcs Ruincs de Pompeii," p. 46.

OF AN ANCIENT CITY. 249

ings and mosaics, now preserved in the Museum at Naples,
— we come to

The Hemicyde, a species of semicircular vaulted
alcove, flanked with pilasters, surmounted by a pediment,
and painted in red panels with golden arabesques, which
seems to have been intended as a resting-place for the
weary wayfarer. Near this spot were discovered the
skeletons of a mother and her three children, one of
them an infant, all interlaced in each other's arms. They
had attempted to escape ; their strength failed them, or
the horrors of the scene paralysed their energies ; and
they contentedly laid down to die, folded in one last
embrace of love stronger than death. From the gold
rings and rich ornaments found about them, they must
have belonged to a family of distinction.

Tomb of the Garlands, supported on a lofty basement,
with Corinthian pilasters, which sustain well-executed
wreaths of flowers ; and the

Cenotaph of Terentius Felix, demand no special notice.

We now arrive at two open Exedra or Hemicydes. The
first is raised on a high step ; it is about seventeen feet in
diameter, and bears the following inscription, occupying
the whole space above the stone seat, which is finished
oft" at each end by a lion's paw : —

MAMLC .P.P. SACERDOTI . PVBLIC^E . LOCVS .
SEPVLTVR . DATVS . DECVRIONVM . DECRETO .
[To Mamia, daughter of Porcius, public priestess, a place of burial is assigned
by decree of the Decurions.]

At the foot of the hemicycle, an inscription on an

250

A STROLL AMONG THE TOMfiS

STREET AT POMPEII RECENTLY EXPLORED.

upright stone records that the decurions had granted to
M. Porcius a plot of ground twenty-five feet square —
probably the burial-place above mentioned — and close
adjoining stands the supposed Tomb of the Priestess
Mamia; a square pile of masonry covered with stucco,
and ornamented in front with four Corinthian columns.
In the interior, which was painted, and set round with
eleven niches, were found some indifferent marble

OF AN A NCIENT CITY. 2 5 1

statues, and a pedestal for the support of the funeral
urn.

The second hemicycle belonged, as an inscription
recorded, to Aulus Veius, a duumvir of justice and a
military tribune, to whom the ground had been presented
by the decurions and citizens of Pompeii.

Here we complete our survey of the Strada delle
Tombe, or Street of Tombs ; an appropriate spot for
taking leave — as we now must do — of the

CITY OF THE DEAD.

X.

Ipertulatuum.

" The miner plods

With torch and mattock ; and, discoursing, shows
The hoarded fragments of Heraclea's woes."

BEATTIB.

j HE discovery of the actual site of Herculaneum
was made in 1709, when the Prince d'Elboeuf
of Lorraine was erecting a summer-palace at
Portici, which he desired to decorate with
antiques. Hearing that a peasant at Resina, while sink-
ing a well, had lighted upon some choice relics, he
purchased the right of making further excavations. In
these he was so far successful that he had obtained
numerous statues and some remains of ancient sculpture,
when Count Daun, the Austrian viceroy at Naples, inter-
fered, and reclaimed the right of exploration for the
Government Very little, however, has been done under-
ground. The researches made have not led to such
interesting results as at Pompeii. The inhabitants, with
very few exceptions, appear to have effected their escape,
and to have carried with them almost all their movable
property. Nor is it an easy matter to conduct any
further investigations. Two towns are built upon the
strata which successive eruptions of Vesuvius have depo-

DISCO VERIES A T HER CULA NE UM. 253

sited over the buried city, and its buildings are filled with
a coarse kind of tufa, which offers almost insuperable
obstacles to the workman. As fast, therefore, as one
portion has been excavated, it has been filled up again
with the materials removed from another portion, and
which it was impossible to carry to the surface. And,
moreover, to provide for the security of the houses in the
two modern towns — Resina and Portici — it has been
found necessary to build up the ruins immediately they
have been despoiled of their treasures.

The principal discoveries made at Herculaneum may
be briefly enumerated. A temple ; a wide street, paved
with lava, and lined with porticoes, leading to a second
temple; a basilica, erected by Marcus Nonius, the pro-
consul, measuring 2 28 feet in length by 132 feet in breadth,
and enclosed within a portico of forty-two columns ;
several blocks of buildings ; a large and handsome villa,
embellished with fountains, termini, busts, and statues
(now in the Museo Borbonico) ; some Roman tombs ; a
suburban villa ; and the theatre. The latter is the only
object now visible underground, and it is so crowded with
pillars erected to support the rock above it, that no per-
fect coup (fceil of its arrangements can be anywhere
obtained. It is computed to have possessed accommoda-
tion for 10,000 spectators. The area consists of nineteen
rows of seats, about a foot high by three and a-half feet
wide, laid out, like those of the Pompeian theatres, in
cunic or wedge-shaped compartments. The volcanic
matter at the back of the stage still exhibits the cast of
the mask of a human face, almost as distinct as if it had
been taken in plaster.

(190) 17

*54 T//K THEATRE,

Two inscriptions were found over the architraves of
the side entrances to the orchestra. From one of these
it appears that the theatre was erected at the cost of
Lucius Annius Mammianus Rufus, Censor and Duumvir
of Justice ; from the other, that the architect was one
Numisius, the son of Publius. In a passage behind the
postscenium is the well — opening, above ground, in the
Cortile S. Giacomo, in the main street of Resina — which
was the original cause of the excavations that led to the
discovery of the city.

At the right end of the proscenium is a rectangular
basement for a statue, which bears the following inscrip-
tion :— "Ap . Claudio . C . F . Pulchro . Cos . Imp .
Herculanenses . Post . Mort. " At the left end a similar
base is lettered : — " M . Nonio Balbo Praet . et Pro-
cons. "

The roof and upper story of the building were sup-
ported by large square pilasters of red brick, with marble
cornices, and the surface was decorated with marble
tablets and paintings, many of which have been removed
to the Naples Museum. Bronze statues were found here
of Drusus and Antonia, and the Muses.

Herculaneum, the reader will remember, was not
destroyed, like Pompeii, by showers of ashes, but by a
torrent of volcanic mud, which rolled over the city with
resistless force, and filling all its edifices nearly to the
roof, hardened as it dried into a coarse tufa. It has,
therefore, to be cut awjay by the axe, like solid stone.
And for this reason we need not hope that any important
discoveries will be made if the Italian Government should
resume the excavations.

THE PAST AND THE PRESENT. 255

We bid farewell to the deserted city in the words of a
graceful writer, who acknowledges that it is difficult to
exaggerate the impression produced on the mind by the
ruins of Herculaneum, or the more extensive and inte-
resting remains of the once bright and luxurious Pompeii.
" Here," says Miss Kavanagh, " the Past is Present, and
rises before us in its meanest details, and therefore in its
greatest power. We cannot walk ten steps without feel-
ing, Is it true 1 Are the people of this city really dead 1
Are the owners of these shops and houses really gone for
ever ? Will the worshippers never come back to the
temple 1 Will the citizens never again throng the forum 1
Is the garden really forsaken for ever ? Will children,
girls, and slaves never again gather beneath the colon-
nade of the villa, or look from the terrace at the purple
mountains, with their green slopes and the smoke of dis-
tant waterfalls 1 Which is the truest — that Past which
surrounds us, and seems so near ; or that Present, which
fades away from thought, and seems so far when we enter
the charmed city?"

And thus, though it be, as Sir Walter Scott emphati-
cally termed it, a City of the Dead, yet shall it also and
ever remain for the cultivated mind, for the vivid imagina-
tion, a City of the Living. Recall the past ; people the
noisy theatre and the busy forum ; crowd the temple
with adoring worshippers ; place the beauty in her
boudoir and the artist in his studio, the judge on his
bench and the soldier at his post ; pour through the
streets the rushing, animated, restless life of antiquity ;
and then shall Pompeii and Herculaneum live again, if
only in a summer dream.

XI.

giscobcrics.

HE excavations still in vigorous prosecution at
Pompeii are constantly revealing new trea-
sures and fresh objects of interest. Among
these I may refer to a beautiful statuette in
bronze, supposed to represent " Narcissus listening to
Echo," which has not unjustly been described as the
most precious work of the class hitherto obtained from
the ruins, and " a masterpiece of ancient art." It was
dug out of what appears to have been a washing or
scouring establishment, judging from the numerous
leaden vats and deep basins of terra-cotta found on the
ground floor. You see in it a graceful, rounded, volup-
tuous figure, naked except for the goat-skin flung loosely
over the left shoulder, and the hunter's cothurn or bus-
kins, laced round the ankle, and reaching to the calf of
the leg. The head is inclined over the left shoulder, in
the act of listening, and the face wears an intent and
peculiarly earnest expression. A branch of ivy and ivy-
berries is wound among the hair. The right hand is
lifted, and the first finger directed to the spot from
whence proceeds the voice of the amorous Echo. The
left hand rests daintily on the hip. The sockets of the

RECENT DISCOVERIES. 257

eyes, which had once been filled with silver or ivory, are
now empty.

This exquisite statuette would seem to be of Greek
workmanship, and the copy, in all probability, of some
famous statue. Its execution is admirable ; the chisel-
ing clear and vigorous. The forms are softly rounded,
and the principles of anatomy conscientiously studied.
The discovery of so precious a work of art is in itself an
almost sufficient reward for the labour bestowed upon the
Pompeian excavations.

An amber figure of Cupid disguising himself in a wig
was discovered about 1864. It seems to have been
considered an article of great -value, for it had been
carried away, with a small collection of silver coins, by
some fugitive from the eruption, whose skeleton was
found hard by. A lamp of solid gold, weighing thirty-three
and a-half ounces, has also been dug up.

Early in 1867 the excavators came upon a hermeti-
cally-sealed bronze vessel, which, when opened, was
found to contain a considerable quantity of water.
Some adventurous bystanders drank of the liquid, and
agreed in pronouncing it fresh, clear, and of remarkable
softness. It had been preserved for nearly eighteen
hundred years.

The works of art and various objects of interest
obtained at Pompeii and Herculaneum are preserved in
the Museum at Naples. The recent acquisition of the
Blac.as collection by the British Museum will, however,
place within reach of the Londoner seven ancient relics
of great value. These are mural paintings, and their
beauty and importance are undeniable. From Pompeii

258 THE B LAC AS COLLECTION.

come the following : — A spirited group of three figures,
one of whom is playing the lyre ; a fine representation
of Ulysses escaping the blandishments of the Sirens —
winged, bird-footed creatures these, with lutes and
double pipes, chanting melodiously their weird strains,
while sitting on skeleton-strewn rocks which hem in on
either side the strait through whose waters the subtle
Odysseus guides his barque ; and a temple, or some
other stately pillared building ; — knowledge of perspec-
tive being clearly shown in the vanishing lines of the
architecture and in the water-surface. From Hercula-
neum : Ariadne reclining on the shore, and as she
wakes from her slumber, raising her hand in entreaty
towards Theseus, who nevertheless urges his rowers to
bear his galley with increased speed from the despairing
maiden. From Stabia : Two poets, crowned, and
apparently reciting their verses ; a recumbent female
figure, holding a vase of flowers in her left hand ; and,
lastly, a bird, painted with wonderful truth and finish.

The processes of the excavation are described by a
periodical essayist with much liveliness ; and in our
brief account we shall freely borrow from his pages.*

We will suppose that the reader is desirous of witness-
ing a " scavo" Several chambers are generally kept in
readiness for this purpose. It has been ascertained from
experience that articles of importance are usually found
on the ground floor, in the lapillo or ashes. The " scavo"
is consequently prepared by removing all the volcanic
material which covers the building to within about four
or five feet of the floor. The entrances to the chamber

* "Quarterly Review," No. ccxxx, pp. 335-337.

PROCEEDINGS AT A SCA VO. 259

are then carefully closed with stones, and no one is
allowed to go in until the final excavation takes place.

On the appointed day Signer Fiorelli, the director of
the works, accompanies the visitor to Pompeii. Twelve
or fourteen workmen, under a superintendent, who
watches them closely to prevent any petty pilfering, are
ready for the day's task. They usually include a couple
of skilful excavators, who have to remove, with peculiar
caution, the deposit of loose pumice-stones or indurated
mud which preserves the antiquities searched for. The
remainder of the party consists of women, girls, and boys,
who are employed in removing the rubbish. The mode
of procedure adopted is scarcely less rude and primitive
than that which Mr. Layard pursued at Nineveh. The
diggers loosen the earth, which, shovelled into baskets,
is carried away by the laughing, singing, jesting Neapoli-
tans to carts ready to receive it. The superintendent,
whose well-practised eye detects the smallest object,
occasionally picks up a coin or a fragment of metal.
Suddenly the excavators stop, and call the director's
attention to a discovery. " The colour of the ' lapillo'
tells us if an object in bronze or iron is about to be
uncovered. If of copper or bronze, the blue oxidation
peculiar to Pompeii tints the soil ; if of iron, the secret is
betrayed by the reddish-brown hue which marks the
presence of that metal." An experienced workman, with
a kind of trowel, now removes the " lapillo," and by
dexterous manipulation contrives to uncover the object
of which he is in quest without injuring it ; an elegant
bronze vase, perhaps — a glass amphora — a cameo or
necklace — a statuette — or an iron utensil of extreme

260 TREASURE TROVE.

rarity. If the thing discovered is of bronze, lead, or
glass, it is generally in excellent condition ; if of iron, so
much decomposed, as in most cases to fall in pieces on
exposure to the air. The object is carefully removed by
the superintendent, placed on a tray, and a note made
of the place and position in which it was found, and of
any peculiar circumstances attending its discovery. A
more detailed description is afterwards taken in the
receiving-room, and the article finally transferred to the
Royal Museum at Naples, or added to the small collec-
tion now being formed at Pompeii.

The diggers and carriers resume their labours, and at
length the chamber is entirely cleared. We then re-
cognize it to be the " tablinum" in the house of a wealthy
citizen. The walls are elaborately painted in vivid
colours and with fantastic designs. If they are found to
be insecure they are immediately strengthened by iron
brackets, by wooden props, or buttresses of masonry.
The frescoes of superior merit are carefully removed by
detaching the plaster from the wall, and over those which
are suffered to remain a varnish is spread to protect them
from the atmosphere. The pavement is either in simple
patterns of black and white tessera? or of graceful mosaic,
adorned with flowers, fruit, masks, or figures in bright
colours. " On removing from it the last layer of rubbish
we come upon a perfect skeleton. It is that of a woman,
probably the mistress of the house. She had attempted
to fly on that fatal night, and had thought to save her
jewel-case — the ' mundus jnuliebrisj ' the woman's all' —
inclosed in its wooden casket or pyxis. We find the
hinges, the lock, and the ornamental fittings, which,

A "WOMAN'S ALL." 261

being of bronze and ivory, have been preserved, whilst
the wood-work has perished. Scattered around her are
its contents — her golden ear-rings; bracelets; and a neck-
lace hung with curious amulets, such as objects in coral,
supposed to bring fecundity, a closed hand, with the two
fingers extended to ward off the evil eye, a bee in onyx
of exquisite workmanship, as an augury of good, and
little bells, whose sound drives away contagion; her
jewelled rings ; a fragment of her ivory comb ; her
bronze looking-glass ; the ivory pins that gathered up
her tresses ; and a few small glass and alabaster vases
and bottles which held her ointments and perfumes. If
the lava-mud has penetrated into her chamber, the mould
of the casket itself may be preserved, so that a perfect
cast may be taken of it ; and even the impression of the
linen garments which formed part of her wardrobe may
be plainly seen. Near her lies a terra-cotta lamp, with
its elegant dolphin-shaped cover. It had fallen from
her hands when she sunk exhausted, after in vain groping
her way through the thick darkness."

The excavations at present are carried on in a part of
the town which seems to have been mainly occupied by
the lower classes, and consists of shops and houses of a
mean character.

One interesting discovery made here is that of a Pom-
peian Eating-House. On a white marble slab in the
front room stood an earthen pipkin, containing small fish,
which had apparently been cooked in oil with raisins and
onions, and were ready to be served up, when the sudden
doom fell upon the town. Into a kind of brick range
were let deep basins of earthenware and metal, and be-

262 ANCIENT WINES.

neath them small open fire-places kept warm the
various messes. Upon the top were lying the ladles em-
ployed in distributing them. A rude tripod of iron upon
the earthen floor supported an iron caldron for boiling
water, and in the centre of the room was a portable iron
cooking stove, of exceedingly ingenious construction.
Against the walls were ranged a number of deep bronze
trays of various sizes, fitting into one another. A few
glass wine-jars were scattered about, and one or two
square panes of window-glass.

The inner shop or room contained several earthen
amphorae of various sizes, which had been used for
" bottling " select wines. One was lettered, " Frvt T.
Clavd. iiii. L. Vitellio. iii. Cos;" from whence we in-
fer that the wine was bottled in the fourth year of the
consulate of Tiberius Claudius, and the third of Lucius
Vitellius, or A.D. 47. One wine, from the island of Cos,
is called " Covm. Granatvm." — the epithet " granatvm "
describing, I suppose, some peculiar flavour. It was
bought from the cellar of Aierius Felix at Rome — a
wine-merchant of repute, perhaps, for the quality of his
wares. Another jar is inscribed " Kor. Opt." — i.e., the
very best Corcyra. We also meet with a wine called
" Old Luna," which appears to have been purchased by
a certain Cornelia of M. Valerius Abinnericus, and to
have been four years in bottle.

LVN. VET. 8

A IIII R

x iTii s £

M. VALERI. ABINNER1CI.

The letter R stands, it may be, for Rubrum, " red ;" and

A BAKING OVEN. 263

x mi S may refer to the price paid, or the quantity pur-
chased.

At the bottom of this inner room was a baking-oven,
whose mouth was still closed with an iron plate, and within
which were found eighty-three loaves, black and charred,
but still retaining their shape, that of a modern double
loaf scored on the top. On the floor lay the iron shovel
which was used to remove the loaves from the oven.
Various vessels in metal, some bronze trays, and olives,
beans, nuts, and onions, were scattered about the room.
The workman had been surprised at his work, and just
as he left it the stranger gazes upon it, after the lapse of
nearly eighteen centuries.

The ruins of Pompeii are now entered at two points,
by the Street of the Tombs, and by the gate leading to
the Forum. Every visitor pays a fee of two francs, and,
in return, is furnished with a plan of the excavations and
a guide. It should be noted that the appellations of the
houses and streets are being changed. When possible,
the name of the owner is substituted, or else his occupa-
tion is designated, and the house numbered. In the pre-
ceding pages, however, I have thought it advisable to
preserve the old and better-known nomenclature.

A museum of Pompeian relics has been established,
and a library is in course of formation exclusively devoted
to works on Pompeii, ^or authorities on the arts and
sciences of antiquity.

During the winter a corps of five hundred men, women,
and children labour at the excavations ; in the summer,
on account of the unhealthiness of the site, only fifty are
employed. It is calculated that the whole city will have

264 GENERAL ASPECT OF THE CITY.

been bared to the curiosity of the modern virtuoso in
another ten years.

As far as we can now judge, says a writer already re-
ferred to, Pompeii must have closely resembled in its
principal features a modern Eastern city. It is certain
that almost every house was provided with a nuznianum
— that is, a projecting gallery or balcony, either open or
roofed, which overhung the street, was built of brick,
and supported by strong wooden beams or props. The
exterior of the houses, however, afforded but little pro-
mise of the beauty, grace, and richness within. The
sudden change from the naked brick walls facing the
narrow street to the spacious peristyle, embellished with
paintings, marbles, and coloured frescoes — decorated
with flower-beds, made musical with murmuring fountains
—and encircled by alcoves and colonnades, into which
the ardent rays of an Italian sun were denied entrance
by rich tapestries and embroidered hangings, will remind
the Oriental traveller of Damascus and Ispahan. Emi-
nently suggestive of an Eastern town, moreover, are the
overhanging galleries, with their small latticed windows ;
the low, small, and even squalid shops, where trade
seems to struggle for breathing-space ; the marble slabs
on which the vendor exposed his wares, and received
their price ; and the awnings stretched across the street

I close these references to recent excavations with a
striking incident which forcibly recalls to one's mind the
terrible " last scene " in the Pompeian drama. And I
give it as sketched by M7Marc Monnier with remarkable
fidelity and spirit.*

* Marc Monnier, " Pomp£i et les Pomp&ens" (" Tour du Monde," 1864), 415, 416.

DISCO VER Y OF SKELE TONS. 265

In 1863, he says, under a mass of ruin, the excavators
discovered an empty space, at whose bottom some bones
were discernible. They immediately summoned M.
Fiorelli to the spot, who conceived a felicitous idea. He
caused some plaster to be poured while liquid into the
hole, and the same operation was renewed at other points
where similar bones were thought to be visible. After-
wards the crust of pumice-stone and hard ashes which
enveloped, as in a shroud, these objects, having been
carefully removed, before the eye were revealed the skele-
tons of four human corpses. You may see them now
in the Museum at Naples.

One of these bodies is that of a woman, near whom
ninety-one pieces of money, two silver vases, some keys,
and jewels were discovered. She was making her escape
with these treasures when overtaken by death in the
narrow street. You may see her still, stretched upon
her left side ; you may distinguish her head-dress, the
texture of her clothes, two rings of silver which she wears
on her finger ; one of her hands is broken — observe the
cellular structure of the bone ; the left arm is raised and
crooked, the delicate hand is clenched, so that the nails,
you can see, have entered the flesh ; all the body appears
swollen and contracted ; the legs alone, very slender,
remain extended ; you perceive that she struggled in a
prolonged agony ; her attitude is that of suffering, not of
death.

Behind her have fallen a woman and a young girl ;
the elder — her mother, perhaps — was of humble birth, to
judge from the size of her ears; she wore on her finger
only a ring of iron; her left leg raised and stretched,

P/C7WF.S Or THE DEAD.

BODIES DISCOVERED AMONG THE RUINS OF POMPBIL

shows that she too has suffered, though less than the
noble lady ; the poor lose less in dying ! Near her, as if
on the same bed, lies her young daughter ; one is at the
head, the other at the foot ; their legs cross. This young
girl, almost a child, produces a strange impression on
the spectator; you can clearly discern the texture, the
folds of her clothing — the linen which covered her arm
down to the wrist — some rents here and there exposing
the skin — and the embroidery of the small shoes which
encased her feet ; above all, you see her last hour, her
supreme moment, as if one had been present at it, under
the wrath of Vesuvius — she had raised her robe over her
head in her terror ; she fell, while running, with her face

A POMPEIAN CORPSE.

267

BODY DISCOVERED AMONG THE RUINS OF POMPEII.

against the ground, and being unable to rise, had sup-
ported on one arm her young and feeble head. One
hand is open, as if she had held something — perhaps the
veil which covered her. The finger-bones pierce through
the plaster ; she did not endure any long pain, yet upon
her it is most pitiful to look ; she was not fifteen years
old.

The fourth body is that of a man of gigantic stature.
He has flung himself on his back to die bravely; his
arms and legs are straight, and immovable. His clothes
are very sharply defined, the tunic which once was new
and brilliant, the sandals (soleae) laced to the feet, with
the iron nails that fastened the wooden soles still plainly
discernible. On the bone of one finger he wears a ring of
iron ; his mouth is open, and some teeth are wanting; his

268

nose and cheek-bones are boldly marked ; the eyes and
hair have disappeared, but the moustache remains. There
is a martial and resolute air in this fine corpse.

Such, then, are the scenes which occasionally meet
one's gaze in the excavations at Pompeii.

XII.

Uteunt at itaphs.

MUZEO NATIONALE — TREASURES FROM POMPEII.

|S I have already stated, the principal discoveries
made at Pompeii and Herculaneum are pre-
served in the National Museum of Naples
(formerly called the Muzeo Borbonico), and
my view of the treasures of antiquity which their excava-
tion has revealed can hardly be considered complete
without brief reference to them. It is true that a mere
enumeration of these choice and precious things can be
of no interest to the reader, while my space precludes
me from enlarging on their value as illustrations of ancient
art, manners, and customs. Yet am I unwilling to quit
the subject without affording some idea of their extent
and character.

First, as to the Frescoes.

Overbeck is of opinion that the Pompeians employed
three distinct kinds of mural painting.* Pure fresco ;
fresco in which the colours are laid on thickly in the
centre, but diminish towards the edges ; and a kind of

* Overbeck, "Pompeji," ii. 174-219. An elaborate examination of the fresco
work of the ancients will be found in the pages here referred to.
(190) 18

«70 FRESCO-PAINTING.

tempera, or painting on dry stucco, in which the body of
colour is thin, but laid on evenly throughout. Pure fresco
paintings are rare, but the walls were almost invariably
prepared in this way as grounds for designs executed in
one of the other two methods. The general style of
execution is free, bold, and vigorous; the artists were
evidently Greeks, or brought up in a Greek school ; and
their work is almost wholly of a decorative character.
It must therefore be judged from this point of view; not
as the compositions of a great master, carefully matured,
and designed for an independent existence, but as the
swift and spirited productions of a ready " brush," in-
tended to embellish the walls of an atrium or a tablinum.
The subjects are selected with a fine eye to effect ; the
colouring is always vivid and impressive ; the ornamenta-
tion shows an exhaustible wealth of fancy; and one can-
not help wishing that our English mansions were similarly
brightened and enriched by things of equal beauty.

Most noticeable in the Muzeo Nationale are the fol-
lowing frescoes, some of which have been described in
the preceding pages : —

The Love-Merchant offering for sale a cage full of
Cupids. A handsome lady leans against a pillar, while
the merchant pulls from his cage a little Cupid by the
wing. Two more remain in it; two have previously
been released ; while a fifth, who best succeeds in en-
gaging the lady's attention, flies towards her with two
garlands in his hands.

The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, supposed to be a copy of
the celebrated picture by Timanthes, which Pliny has
described (Hist. Nat., xxxv. 10, s. 36).

SOME NOTABLE SPECIMENS.

271

Ariadne deserted by Theseus.

Achilles instructed by Chiron to play upon the lyre.
The contrast of colours is particularly well managed and
striking.

ACHILLES INSTRUCTED BY CHIRON TO PLAY UPON THE LYRE.

Pylades and Orestes, chained, and led away to the
sacrifice.

Achilles delivering Briseis to the heralds of Aga-
memnon— a chef-d'oeuvre of ancient art.

Theseus slaying the Minotaur.

Telephus nourished by the Hind, while Hercules, Pan,
and Fortune attend him — this was removed from Her-
culaneum.

Antiope's revenge : Circe bound to the horns of the bull

272 MOSAICS FROM POMPEII.

Medea contemplating the death of her children, who,
meanwhile, are amusing themselves at play — a nobly
conceived and admirably executed composition, imitated,
it is supposed, from the famous picture by Timomachus
of Byzantium, with which Julius Caesar enriched his
temple to Venus Genitrix.

The marriage of Bacchus and Ariadne — full of " poeti-
cal intention."

Masinissa and Sophonisba — an historical picture.
Sophonisba holds the " poisoned cup," which Masinissa,
while embracing her, prevails upon her to drink, that she
may escape the ignominy of figuring in Scipio's triumph.

The Seven Days of the Week, represented by the seven
planets.

The Danzatrice, or Dancing-Girls.

Mars and Venus.

We now pass to the Mosaics, which at Pompeii were em-
ployed not only for pavements but for mural decoration.
The " Battle of Issus " is the largest and finest ancient
mosaic now extant. It was found in the House of the
Faun ; as were Aerates riding on a tiger, or panther; and
a decorative design of masks and wreaths.

I have referred, in a preceding section, to the choragium,
or rehearsal, which exhibits the choragus instructing the
performers in their parts. Equally noteworthy are : —

Lycurgus attacked by Bacchantes and a panther for
ordering the vines to be destroyed.

Theseus conquering the Minotaur.

The Three Graces.

A magpie stealing a mirror out of a basket

TREASURES OF ANCIENT ART. 273

Sculptures, — The priestess Eumachia; the statue erected
in her honour by the guild of fullones, or dyers, at
Pompeii.

And from Herculaneum : — Hercules and Omphale ; a
fine Roman bust of Alexander the Great, wearing the two
small horns, insignia of divinity, as son of Jupiter
Ammon ; a colossal figure of Claudius, seated ; a colossal
seated statue of Jupiter, with the head of Augustus ; the
fine statue known as Aristides, though by some critics
called ^Eschines — a masterpiece of high intellectual ex-
pression, the embodiment in marble of the tranquil
dignity of Genius ; the Muses, found in the theatre at
Herculaneum; busts of Bacchus, Demosthenes, and
Themistocles ; and statues of Cicero, Homer, and
Sulla.

Bronze Statues. — An admirable representation of the
Sleeping Faun, from Herculaneum ; two Discoboli, or
quoit-players, watching the result of a throw (Hercu-
laneum); the Dancing Faun, an exquisite conception,
found in the so-called House of the Faun at Pompeii ;
a beautiful group of Bacchus and Ampelus, from the
House of Pansa — it was found, with some other objects
of importance, in a dyer's caldron, and had evidently
been wrapped up in a linen fabric, the owner hoping to
carry it with him in his flight from the city ; colossal
statue of Augustus as Jupiter ; a Drunken Faun, and a
life-size Mercury in repose — very beautiful in idea, and
not less beautiful in execution — both were discovered at
Herculaneum ; a small figure of Apollo (from Pompeii),
holding in one hand the lyre, in the other a plectrum —

274

ARTISTIC MEMORIALS.

the eyes are of silver ; Alexander the Great mounted on
his favourite horse, Bucephalus — a vigorous composition
of high artistic excellence (from Herculaneum) ; Claudius
Onesus (from Herculaneum) ; and Fortune planted on a
globe (from Pompeii).

Among the smaller bronzes, chiefly excavated at
Pompeii, I may mention : —

A candelabrum of exquisite design, three feet in height
At the corner of a rectangular base stands a rich angular
pillar, surmounted by a capital, and adorned with a comic
mask on one side, and a bull's head, with the Greek

BKONZE CANDELABRA.

word Rvitpaviov (bucranior, bovis cranium), on the other.
Four decorated branches project from the angles of the
abacus, and from these the lamps are suspended. The
plinth, or base, is inlaid with silver ornament, vine-leaves,
grapes, and fruit ; the leaves in silver, the stems and
fruit in a glittering brass. On one side is a naked
Bacchus, his plaited locks garlanded with ivy, riding on
a panther, and lifting a drinking cup in his right hand.
On the other, an altar, with a fire burning upon it The

DOMESTIC ARTICLES.

275
It

whole has a singularly graceful and charming effect,
was found in the House of Diomedes.

Ladies' toilette articles. — These comprise ear-rings, some
with and some without pearl pendants; square and round
mirrors of polished metal ; breast-pins ; rings with ser-
pents' heads ; necklaces ; pots for rouge ; combs, hair-pins,
and bodkins of ivory.

HOUSEHOLD TREASURES.

Kitchen utensils. — Here you will see portable cooking-
stoves, jelly-moulds fashioned in imitation of birds and
animals, scales and weights, caldrons, saucepans, frying-
pans, lamps, lamp-stands, tripods, and such a variety of
pots as might gratify the cupidity of the most avaricious
English housewife.

There may also be found in this collection numerous
specimens of latches, locks, keys, door-hinges, bolts,

276 CLASS AND TERRA-COTTA.

screws, stirrups, bridles, thimbles, distaffs, spindles, writ-
ing materials, bells, vases, military trophies, flesh-hooks,
braziers — in a word, of almost every article that entered
into the economy of the daily life of antiquity. And it
may be asserted, as the conclusion to be drawn from
their examination, that they exhibit in a remarkable
manner the ancient love of elegance and grace, while
demonstrating how far inferior in fitness and ingenuity
the best of them are to modern contrivances.

Glass and Terra-cotta. — I have already alluded to
the absurdity of the notion which long prevailed, that the
ancients were ignorant of glass. The Naples Collection
contains upwards of four thousand specimens, including
almost every article that could be fashioned in this
material, from a luminous semi-transparent vase (dis-
covered in the House of Diomedes), of artistic design
and graceful execution, to a common window-pane. In
terra-cotta the articles manufactured are of even greater
variety. Here is the amphora, in which " fine old crusty
wine " was preserved ; the money-box in which the
young Lucullus or the child Aglaia stored away their
savings ; the dishes which held at table the Ambracian
kid or the murcena from some celebrated fish-pond ; the
lamps which lit up the tablinum, the atrium, or the
cubicula ; the votive statuettes offered by the devout at
the shrines of their favourite deities ; and the sepulchral
urns which finally contained- the ashes of the dead. You
may ascend from the cellar and the kitchen to the boudoir
and the banqueting-room, and find an abundant store
of articles suitable for each apartment. The ancient

ANCIENT WRITING MA TERIALS. 277

potters must surely have been men of substance, from the
extraordinary demand which prevailed for their wares.

To notice the Gold and Silver Ornaments, worn by
the dandies and beauties of Pompeii, or employed to
decorate the houses of the wealthy; to describe the vases
and the cameos, the tripods and the bas-reliefs, the
gems and intaglios, which have been found among its
ruins, would be simply impossible, even if I restricted
myself to the dull baldness of a catalogue. I can only
say that they throw an important light on the arts,
manners, and customs of antiquity, and brighten up many
allusions in the classic writers which otherwise would
baffle us by their obscurity. In conclusion, therefore, I
shall content myself with a reference to the Papyri, dis-
covered in 1752 in a suburban villa at Herculaneum.
These are formed of thin laminae, or layers, of the vege-
table tissue of the papyrus reed,* so cemented together
with a kind of glue as to form a long narrow sheet, vary-
ing from eight to sixteen inches in breadth, and polished
in such a manner as to provide a suitable surface for the
reception of the ink — a black liquid applied by means of
a reed or calamus. The number of papyri exceeds
seventeen hundred and fifty, and of these nearly a third
have been unrolled and deciphered. Among them are
two books of a treatise " De Natura," by Epicurus, and es-
says or discourses on Music and Rhetoric by Philodomus.
Those hitherto deciphered have been published in a work
entitled " Herculanensium Voluminum quae supersunt."t

* A plant of the genus Cyperus, indigenous to Egypt
t " Edinburgh Review," October 1862.

278

"FfNIS CORONAT OPUS."

Nearly all the MSS. have lost their first leaves, but the
titles are repeated at the end. They are written in
columns from three to four inches wide ; each column
containing from twenty to forty lines, and separated from
another by a space of about an inch. The sentences are
not distinguished by stops of any kind.

The above imperfect list includes the more notable
discoveries made in the buried cities of Campania, and is
sufficient, at all events, to convey to the reader's mind a
tolerably accurate idea of their intrinsic value and archae-
ological importance.

BREAD DISCOVERED AT POMPEII.

INDEX.

ACTORS of Greece and Rome, 127, 128.

^Eola, Isle of, 12.

/Erarium, the, uses of, 77.

Alcobierre, his excavations at Pompeii,
48.

Amalfi, 12.

Amphitheatres, when first erected, 108 ;
history of, 109 ; description of, 109,
no; their interior arrangements, in,
112; laws and institutions of, 112, 113 ;
at Pompeii, 122-125.

Amusements, Greek and Roman, cha-
racter of, 103.

Andabatae, the, 105.

Appian, cited, 18.

Atrium, the, in a Roman house, de-
scribed, 93.

Auctorati, the, 104.

Augustales, the, described, 83.

Avernus, Lake of, 13, 24.

BASILICA, the, description of, 74-77 ;
origin of, 74 ; dimensions, 77 ; con-
stitution of, 75 ; interior, 76.

Bas-reliefs at Pompeii, 113, 121.

Baths, the Roman, description of, 152,
et seq. ; vast extent of, 153-156 ; in-
auguration of, 155, 156 ; the apody-
terium, 157 ; decorations of the apart-
ments, 158 ; the frigidarium, 150-
161 ; the tepidarium, 161-167; tne
cnlidarium, 167-169 ; the Women's
Baths, 170, 171 ; the New Baths at
Pompeii, 171, 172; bathing processes
described, 173-175 ; oils and unguents,
176 ; perfumes and cosmetics, 176, 177 ;
minor arrangements, 177.

Beattie, Dr. W., quoted, 252.

Bekker, cited, 138, 162, 238.

Bellaria, the, 92.

Blacas collection, the, 258.

Brand, quoted, 223.

Burial rites amongst the Romans, 237,
238 ; ceremonies of interment de-
scribed, 238-241.

Byron, quoted, 152.

CSENA, a Roman, details of, 91, 92.
Csenacula, the, described, 91.
Caligula, anecdote of, 125.
Campania, its volcanic activity, 24 ;

early legends of, 24.
Caricatures, Pornpeian, specimens of, 20.
Cassius, Dion, cited, 107.
Catullus, quoted, 180.
Chalcidium, the, description and history

of, 77-81.

Chapman, the poet, quoted, 97.
Commodus, anecdote of, 125.
Cumae, 13.

DIMACHERI, the, 105.
Dobell, Sydney, quoted, 152.
Domestic articles discovered at Pom-
peii, 274-276.
Donaldson, cited, 61.
Dyer, Dr., quoted, 21, 42, 211, 212.

EATING-HOUSE, a Pompeian, 2(51-263.
Elboeuf, Prince d', reference to, 43.
Ennemoser, quoted, 150.
Equites, the, 105.
Essedari, the, 105.
Eumachia, statue of, 79.
Eustace, quoted, 154.
Excavations at Pompeii, how conducted,
258-261.

FORUM, the Pompeian, 62 : its fre-
quenters, 62-65, 72, 73 ; description
of, 65 ; its temples, 66-71.

Frescoes, mythological, description of,
151, 185, 211, 270—272.

Fullonica, the, described, 206-209.

28o

LVDEX.

Funeral Tricliuiura, the, described, 244,
»45-

GARUM, a pickle so called, 59.

Gates, the Pompeian, described, 49-

51.
Cell, Sir William, quoted, 66, 68, 78, 84,

9°. 97, '55. 159, '7°, >76. !98, !99.
220.

Gibbon, quoted, 109, no.

Gladiators, first exhibited, 104 ; whence
obtained, 104 ; various classes of,
104-106 ; shows of, described, 106,
108, in, 112; laws of gladiatorial com-
bats, 112, 113; sculptures represent-
ing, 113-121.

Graffiti, the, 56.

Granaries, the, 68.

Gustatio, the, 91.

HEMICYCLES, their nature and uses,
249, 250.

Hcrculaneum, its ancient splendour, 14 ;
its destruction, 15, 16, 22 ; its origin
and early history, 22, 23 ; excavations
in, 43 ; re-discovery of, 252 ; ruins at,
253 ; theatre of, 253, 254 ; its past and
present contrasted, 255.

Homer, quoted, 13, 24, 89, 196.

Hoplomachi, the, 105.

Horace, quoted, 86, 113, 135, 155, 184.

Houses at Pompeii, description of, 180-

and cubicula, 183 ; triclinium, 183-
187 ; oeci and exedrac, 187 ; pinaco-
theca and bibliotheca, 188 ; balneum,
188.

Houses, of the Sculptor, 145, 146; the
Tragic Poet, 190-202 ; of Ceres, 203,
204 ; the Fountains, 204-206 ; Hol-
conius, 209-213 ; Pansa, 212-217 '• Sal-
lust, 217-219 ; the Dioscuri, 219-222;
the Centaur, 223.

ISEON, the, description of, 146-150.
Isis, worship of, 150.

JUVENAL, quoted, 92, 112, 177.
KAVANAGH, Miss, quoted, 255.

LAQUEATORES, the, 105.

Liternum, 13.

Lucan, quoted, no. V

Lucretius, quoted, 103.

Ludi amphitheatrales, description of the,

103—126.
Lytton, Lord, quoted, 51, 52, 73, 74.

MARSTON, quoted, 223.
Martial, quoted, 14, 176.

Mazois, cited, 184, 248.
Milton, quoted, 12.
Mirmillones, the, 105.
Misenum, 12.

Monnier, M. Marc, quoted, 69, 364.
Mosaic, illustrative of domestic arrange-
ments, 130.
Mosaics at Pompeii, 272.

NAPLES, Bay of, n ; beauty of, n ; com-
mercial advantages of, 16 ; ancient
prosperity of, 17 ; Oscan colonies of,
17-

ORNAMENTS discovered at Pompeii,

277-
Overbeck, quoted, 43, 47, 57, 58, 69,

76, 84, 87, 115, 118, 137, 139, 145, 162,

169. "73, 2°9, 215, 242, 243, 247,

269.

P.ASTUM, 12.

Paintings discovered at Pompeii, 194-
200.

Papyri at Pompeii, 277, 278.

Persius, quoted, 174.

Pindar, cited, 17.

Pistor, shop of a, described, 59.

Pliny, his account of the eruption of
Vesuvius, 27-36 ; cited, 59.

Pompeii, ancient magnificence of, 14 ;
present desolation, 15; destruction of,
15,16; its origin, 17 ; early history, 18;
captured by Sulla, iS ; a Roman co-
lony, 18, 19 ; quarrel with Nuceria,
19, 20 ; its caricatures, 20 ; its wealth,
2i ; description of its ruin, 27-42 ; at-
tempted restoration by Nero, 42 ;
early excavations at, 42, 43 ; by the
Neapolitan government, 44, 45 ; royal
visits to the buried city, 45, 46 ; its
geographical position, 47, 48; its en-
virons, 48 ; its walls, 48, 49 ; its gates,
49-51 ; its streets, 51-53 ; its street-
literature, 54-58 ; its shops, 58—61 ;
the Forum, 62-96; its amphitheatre
and public games, 103-126; its thea-
tres, 127-143 ; its barracks, 143-145 ;
its public buildings, 145-151 ; its
Thermae, or Baths, 152-178 : its
houses, 179-223 ; its streets, 223—234 ;
its tombs, 237-251 ; recent discoveries
at, 256-268.

RETIARII, the, 106.
Rimmel, quoted, 176.
Rogers, quoted, n, 12, 62.

SCULPTURES at Pompeii, 273.
Secutores, the, 106.
Scnaculum, the, described, 83, 84.
Shakspeare, quoted, 127.
Shelley, quoted. 47

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS,

281

Skeletons at Pompeii, discovery of,

265-268.
Soldiers' Barracks, the, described, 143,

144-

Sorrento, 12.

Spartianus, quoted, 175.

Stabiae, position of, 23 ; early history
of, 23 ; under the Romans, 23.

Statues in bronze at Pompeii, 273, 274.

Strabo, references to, 17, 24.

Streets of Pompeii, described and par-
ticularized, 51-53, 223, etseg, ; Street
of Domitian, 52 ; of Abundance, 52 ;
of Fortune, 52 : of Nola, 52 ; of For-
tune, 101 : of Herculaneum, 223, 224 ;
of Narcissus, 225 ; of Modestus, 225 ;
of the Fullonica, 225 ; of the Mer-
curies, 225-229 ; of the Faun, 229 ;
of the Baths, 230, 231 ; of Stabiae,
231-233-

Suetonius, cited, 19.

Sulla, capture of Pompeii by, 18.

TASSO, Torquato, reference to, 12.
Temples of Pompeii, account of, 66, et

136 ; of jEsculapius, 145 ; of Isis,

146-150.

Tennyson, quoted, 21.
Theatre, a Roman, described, 128, 129;

scena and proscenium, 129, 130; pul-

pitum and orchestra, 131 ; scenery

of, 131, 132 ; dramas represented in,
'32> J33 1 historical sketch of, 133,
*34-

Theatres of Pompeii, described, 134,
135 : the Great Theatre, 137 ; interior
of do., 138-140; the Little Theatre,
or Odeum, 141 ; internal arrange-
ments of, 141-143.

Thermopolium, a, described, 60.

Tholos, a, described, 93.

Tibullus, quoted, 237.

Tombs of Pompeii, account of, 237 ; of
Diomedes, 241, 242 ; of Cems and
Labeo, 242 : of the Libellae, 243 ; Tomb
with the Marble Door, 243; of Nae-
vpleia Tyche, 245, 246; of the Ista-
cidian family, 246 ; of Calventius
Quietus, 247, 248 ; of Patricius Scau-
rus, 248 ; of Tyche, 248 ; of the Glass
Amphora, 248 ; of the Garlands, 249 ;
of Terentius Felix, 249 ; of the Priest-
ess Mamia, 250.

Tribunal, the, 150.

Typhon, legend of, 24.

VENATIONES, the, history and account

of, 106-108.
Vesuvius, the mountain, grandeur of,

13 ; various eruptions of, 15, 24, 27 ;

legends connected with, 24 ; annals

of, 27 ; great eruption of, described by

Pliny, 27-36.

Virgil, quoted, 12, 32, 129, 182, 241.
Vitruvius, quoted, 189.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

\The Italics indicate "whole-frige Engrtrvings.\

Page
i Frontispiece — Vievv of Vesuvius

from the Site of Pompeii.
t. A Pompeian Caricature 20

3. Mount Vesuvius previous to the

Eruption of A.D. 63 25

4. Mount Vesuvius after the Erup-

tion 38

5. Street of Sallust (Strada di Sal-

lustio) 53

6. Graffite, or Wall Caricature 56

7. A Baker's Shop 59

8. Thermopolium 60

9. Section of do 61

0. Forum of Pompeii. 63

1. Temple of Venus 69

2. Fresco found at Pompeii 72

3. Statues "of Livia and Drusus 88

4.. Temple of Fortune restored 98

Page

15. Specimen of Marbles found at

Pompeii 101

16. Combat between a Veles and a

Samnite 117

17. Combat between a Thracian and

a Mirmillo 118

18. Combat between a Mirmillo and

a Samnite 120

19. Combat between a Light-armed

Gladiator and a Samnite 120

20. Arming for the Combat 122

21. Curricle or Chariot Bar for two

Horses 125

22. Mosaic : Actors instructed by

the Choragus 130

23. Masks, Dwarf, and Monkey.... 133

24. Comic Scene 140

25. Fresco : A Landscape 143

IJST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page

26. Mythological Frescoes 151

27. The Frigularium 160

aS. Vieiv of tke Tcpidariuni 163

•9. Ceiling of the 1 epidarium 166

30. Ornaments of the Tepidarium . . 167

31. Calidarium 168

32. A Wine-cart 178

33. Female Centaur and Bacchante 185

34. Male Centaur and Bacchante... 185

35. An Ancient Galley 188

36. Hottse of the Tragic Poet 191

37. Cave Canem 1 193

38. Achilles delivers Briseis to the

Heralds of Ajax 195

39. Head of Achilles 196

40. Sacrifice of Iphigenia 201

41. Fullers at Work 207

42. Ancient Fullers 208

43. Bacchus and Ariadne 211

44. Atrium of t lie House of Taiisci 213

45. Jupiter and his F.agle 220

411. Court in the House of the Quzs-

tor 223

47. Achilles at the Court of Lyco-

medes 226

48. Allegorical Figure 227

49. View of the Villa of Diomeiies 235

50. Street of Tombs 339

51. Street at Pompeii recently ex-

plored 250

52. Bodies discovered among the

Ruins of Pompeii 266

53. Body discovered among the

Ruins of Pompeii 267

54. Achilles instructed by Chiron to

Play upon the Lyre 271

55. Bronze Candelabra 274

56. Household Treasures 275

57. Bread discovered at Pompeii . . . 278
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